A Different Meeting
by Master Buzz
Summary: The first meeting between Ranma and Shampoo doesn't happen the same way. How will this difference impact the rest of story?
1. Jusenkyo

Chapter 1: Jusenkyo

Author's note: I do not own any of these characters. They are the property of the great Rumiko Takahashi.

( ) –indicates thought

Ranma Saotome was dead tired from all the walking he had done with his idiotic father all across China looking for places to train and getting barely anywhere useful. Fearing that they had finally gotten lost this time due to their lack of ability to read the words printed on their Chinese map that they had brought with them for this journey. The reason for their troubles was that the map was written in Mandarin and neither one of them could read or speak a single word not in Japanese. Ranma's frustration finally reached its climax forcing him to yell in his anger, "Yo pops are we even close yet? It's been three weeks since we got supplies from our last stop and we're almost out of food."

That last comment got his father Genma's attention because both he and his son had bottomless pits for stomachs that must be fed at constant intervals least they become weak with starvation.

"Boy it's just over this hill in the valley below so quit your whining. You sound like a girl…"

Wham. In the blink of an eye, Ranma's fist was in Genma's face. As he was slowly pulled it back, Genma's face had a large welt in the impact site that was growing larger the further away Ranma's fist was. Had He hit any harder Ranma might have broken Genma's jaw bone. Ranma slowly regained his composure and continued to walk towards their destination. (Well I guess I earned that one so I'll let it slide this time. Damn that hurts I think he's going to actually surpass my skills soon if I don't watch out) thought Genma. He followed his son's example and continued walking towards their destination as well.

Ten minutes passed as the two men continued in silence neither wanted to speak but instead focus on the rigorous training that they were about to undergo. Once on top of the hill they could see the legendary mist filled valley full of a random pattern of springs and bamboo poles sticking out of the ground all over the place as far as they could see.

(Huh the old man was right for once) thought Ranma. "Hurry up old man we finally made it so let's get training."

And with that they took off running down the hill until they found a jolly man dressed in the traditional Chinese military uniform complete with a hat that had a star embroidered on the front sitting in front of a small cabin that had various signs posted in the lawn, each written in a different language. Ranma couldn't tell what they said till he spotted the one in Japanese that read 'Jusenkyo Guide'.

"Hello honored guests and welcome to training ground of cursed springs Jusenkyo. It is legendary training ground now follow me as I tell tragic story of this place… Sirs that's dangerous I haven't finished tragic story yet."

Ranma and his father didn't feel like listening to the tragic stories of the guide all they wanted to do was start training. Their typical sparing match broke out on top of the bamboo poles with each combatant trading small blows with one another in order to test the others defenses before going in for a real strike.

"Please sirs very bad you fall in spring!" (Why nobody listen to guide. It's always the same thing and they'll end up blaming me for not warning them the idiots.)

The two men continued to ignore the guide's pleas to listen to his warnings. The sparring proceeded as usual matches go between the Saotomes where the two traded kicks and punches but still able to regain their footing on another pole after they met each other in mid-air combat. After all the Saotome school of Anything Goes Martial Arts had mid-air combat as one of its specialties making this sparing match a battle for mastery of mid-air fighting. As the battle raged on Ranma began to notice that his father was developing a weak spot in his defenses most likely due to fatigue and it wasn't long before Ranma took advantage of this new development and delivered a powerful kick that sent Genma flying straight down into one of the springs.

"Aw too bad he fall in Shonmaoniichuan, Spring of Drowned Panda, whoever fall in spring take on body of panda." Yelled the guide but it was too late of a warning for Ranma as he was struck by his father as he jumped out of the spring for a counter attack. A surprised Ranma had little time to comprehend that the large panda before him was really his father before he was sent flying into another spring.

(I bet he falls in Nyannichuan) thought the guide, and sure enough that's exactly what happened to Ranma.

About 5 minutes passed as the Saotomes tried but failed to figure out what had just happened which involved lots of screaming from Ranma as he had discovered his or should I saw her new bust before Ranma finally asked the guide what was going on.

"What Happened to us."

"You fall in cursed spring now you have curse. Not bad though curse not permanent."

"What do you mean… hey that's hot. Wait I'm a guy again yes."

"Curse triggered by water, hot water change you back till cold water hit you again which will happen a lot due to curse."

"Well this sucks. Is there a cure?"

"Maybe but it be best to ask the Joketsuzoku. They have 3,000 years of records on Jusenkyo and the curses so they'd probably know better than I."

'Don't forget me' signed Genma as he was handed the hot water to change back with.

"Honored guests we need to go so that we can find cure there. Closest town is a full day's walk from here and we leave in morning so rest up."

Meanwhile in Nyuuchezu

Shampoo was anxious for the tournament to begin so that she could prove that she really was the strongest warrior of the Joketsuzoku and not just a spoiled Great-Granddaughter of the matriarch. Unfortunately for her the tournament did not start until tomorrow and every passing moment was spent in restless anticipation for the festivities to begin. In order to pass the time she read through one of the Tribe's historic texts. The book she had been given to read by her Great-Grandmother for her grooming as the future matriarch dealt with the Cursed Springs of Jusenkyo and described in great detail the tragic tale of the place but also noted that the tribe's information was incomplete on each springs history and that the guide had better information on each spring in the valley's history.

The book included that the springs could be divided up into three different categories: animal curses, human curses and special curses. The book also listed that each and every curse worked the same, the curse is activated by cold water and the temporary cure is activated by hot water and cold water would trigger the curse again in a never ending cycle. In some rare cases the cursed victim managed to obtain a permanent cure by plunging into their respected spring of drowned girl/boy. At the end of the book was a list of Jusenkyo guides and each had a picture next to their years of service. Shampoo studied only the picture of the current guide because there was no need in her opinion to study the looks of past guides, besides she never knew when she might meet the guide due to their close vicinity.


	2. The Tournament

Chapter 2: The Tournament

Author's notes: I would like to thank the responses I have received for this story so far. They have helped me work out a way for the story to be better for some particular areas I felt needed some work. I should have also mentioned last chapter that if you notice a mistake in the story that I made please let me know so that I can fix it. I know I make mistakes so bear with me. Thank you.

I do not own any of these characters. They are the property of the great Rumiko Takahashi.

( ) –indicates thought

_Italics _–Mandarin

* * *

Shampoo hopped of the log after her latest match. She had beaten her opponent in just a mere ten seconds because of the opponent's foolishness. The opponent had charged straight at Shampoo and never used a feint to try and get by Shampoo's defenses, but rather attacked straight on trying to overpower her. The result of such foolish tactics was that the opponent was lying flat on her back with one of Shampoo's feet standing on top of her while the judge was raising Shampoo's arm in victory. Satisfied that she had humiliated such the idiot enough she casually walked over to her private table so that she could speak with her Great-Grandmother privately.

"_Great-Grandmother when do I get to face some real competition? So far I've been fighting nothing but weaklings."_

"_Child this is just the second round after this your fights will be much tougher."_

"_Good I don't want to fight more weaklings."_

"_Careful child remember if you underestimate your opponent then even a 'weakling' can surprise you and you'll wind up looking like Moose after he tries to ask you out."_

The image caused Shampoo to flinch. She imagined herself beaten to a bloody heap that was twisted into inhuman shapes just like she did to Moose every time he tried to even to confess his love for her.(I don't want to look like that.)

"_Understood Great-Grandmother I won't let it happen to me."_

"_Good, now hurry or you'll miss your next match."_

Shampoo bowed before the matriarch and then left the table at a full sprint for the log. Shampoo then leapt onto the log from a good twenty feet away and drew her chui from her belt adrenaline pumping. Shampoo then motioned the opponent to come forward and challenge her if she dared. The opponent, a girl with long brown hair that was in a similar style as Shampoo's, made her way onto the log wielding a large bo staff twice as tall as she was. Shampoo immediately began to study her opponent trying to work out the best plan of action to deal with her.

Studying the opponent let Shampoo know that the opponent was a ranged specialist and Shampoo would have to get in quickly or she would be at a serious disadvantage. Once close to her opponent she would have to use feints in order to get inside her defenses and then finish her off. Satisfied with that plan Shampoo waited until the judge commenced the match when Shampoo wasted no time in enacting her plan. After dodging a swipe from the staff, Shampoo was in position to begin her attack. She swung at her opponent with her Chui coming from multiple directions, the one in her right hand aimed straight for the head from up high and the other chui came in from the high left aimed for the girl's midsection. Not surprisingly the girl used her staff to block the 'attack' just as Shampoo had hoped. Seizing the opportunity that her plan had provided, Shampoo kicked the opponent in the ribs hard enough that an audible crack was heard as several ribs were broken by the force of the blow. The pain caused the girl to double over in pain giving Shampoo the opening to knock her off the log with a single blow from her chui.

(Only one more win and I'll finally be the Champion. I can hardly wait.) Shampoo thought as she left to take a quick break at her private table before her next match.

At the same time a red-haired girl, a panda, and a man dressed in the traditional Chinese military garb were walking into the village.

"Welcome sirs to Nyuuchezu…"

"Nyuuche-what what kind of food is that?"

"That funny sir Nyuuchezu is town of Amazon women, Oh very lucky today the women have tournament."

Sitting down at the table the only thing that the Saotomes noticed was the large amount of food laid out before them and each came to the same thought (It sure was nice of them to leave this food here for us starving travelers). Immediately Ranma and Genma began to eat the food in the usual Saotome style, stuffing your face so that the other person couldn't steal your share from you before you had a chance to eat it.

"Sirs watch tournament, winning is great honor for woman of tribe."

That statement got Ranma's attention as he watched both combatants make their way onto the log. The combatant that got on first was a large woman with physical features that looked more like a bear than a human. She was wielding a spiked mace with a handle long enough to be a two-handed weapon.

"That's a woman?" blurted out Ranma as he was staring at the large woman.

"That one more pretty no?" said the guide as he was pointing at the other combatant who had just gotten onto the log. She had long purple hair and was wielding a Chui in each hand. She was wearing a look of determination on her face as if she was going to win no matter the odds. Ranma wasn't paying attention to the other girl and instead had just slapped a large furry arm away from the bread basket in order to grab a piece herself.

The visiting trio watched as the match began among the two women. The two combatants Ranma noted were extremely skilled, but the smaller purple-haired girl seemed to be at a disadvantage as the large bear-like woman was using her superior strength to overpower her opponent, backing her to the edge of the log. Then surprisingly the purple haired girl began to block each and every attack that before had caused her to back away without giving any ground to her large opponent. Again and again the large woman attacked and was repelled each time by a Chui moving in to block while the other prepared to counter the blow only to be dodged by a slight body movement or a quick movement of the mace's handle to divert to angle away from her body.

For a span of a minute this routine continued with neither opponent gaining any advantage over the other, until the smaller girl jumped over her opponent and before she could turn around to block the incoming attack both Chui slammed into her back in a vicious upper cut. The combined strike sent the other woman flying straight into the air landing ten feet away from the log in a crater that her body had just formed. Had the woman remained conscious she would have felt the effects of several broken bones in her legs due to the impact with the ground.

"That girl's got some serious strength to be able to pull off something like that. Did you see how she tricked her opponent into the corner then used her size against her?"

"Yes Ranma" signed panda Genma "Remember that lesson."

Before Ranma had a chance to answer her furry father she felt her danger senses tingle and jumped into the air just in time to avoid a blow from a Chui.

"Hey what's the idea we haven't done anything to you."

(What did she just say) thought an angry Shampoo (it doesn't matter she ate my prize food.)

"_Why are you eating my prize food stranger? You better have a good explanation."_

All Shampoo got as a response was a stare off utter confusion as neither Ranma nor her furry panda father understood a word of what Shampoo had just said.

"_Miss these guests are from Japan and so not speak our language."_

"_Fine then you sir will translate for me or you will be held responsible for their crimes here along with them."_

"_I understand miss just please be a little kinder I have to get back home to my daughter."_

"_That won't be an issue if you comply with my request."_

"_Yes miss."_

"Hey what's she saying?"

"She say hey little girl and panda why you eat my prize, why you do that? That's what she said."

"Well then if I beat you then you got no problem then right" said a boastful Ranma.

The guide repeated Ranma's challenge to Shampoo. And before Shampoo responded something clicked inside her brain. Wasn't this guy translating for her the Jusenkyo guide? She was sure she remembered seeing his picture in her studies from the previous night.

"_You're the Jusenkyo guide aren't you? Are these guests traveling with you cursed?"_

"_Yes to both questions, in fact they are in cursed forms right now."_

"_Then would you mind handing me that hot water you have in your hand?"_

"_Of course miss."_(Darn I was really looking forward to using that for my favorite tea recipe but it can't be helped if I want to get out of here without incident.)

"Well mister guide what did she… Hey that's hot! Alright I'm a guy again!"

"_Tell this boy that I accept his challenge and we will fight on top of the log under Joketsuzoku rules."_

"_Yes miss"_ said the guide as he repeated the news to Ranma.

(I don't know what exactly she means by Joketsuzoku rules but there's no way I'm going to lose this match I don't want her to feel as if I stole something that was rightfully hers so I'm going to have to win it from her even if it already was eaten) thought Ranma.

"Go get em Ranma" signed Genma.

The two opponents climbed their way onto the log and performed a few stretches while the judge made her way back to the arena from her break in a very disgruntled mood. She immediately started the match without bothering to explain the rules for the new comer figuring it wasn't worth wasting the time to let an outsider know of their rules when they clearly would be outmatched by the village champion.

The match proceeded with Shampoo coming in hard with her Chui so that she could get her male opponent off balance but didn't press her attacks full out so that she could still defend herself from attacks. She had no idea of the boy's skills because he didn't have a weapon in his hand to tip her off to what kind of attacks to prepare for. Worse for Shampoo was that her attacks never connected with the boy he was to agile and managed to dodge each and every strike as if it were nothing.

(He's really good I haven't hit him even once and he hasn't needed to block even one of my attacks)

Ranma then noticed that Shampoo was developing an opening in her defenses. Right after she would swing and miss, there was a two second period when he would be able to maneuver a quick kick and end this match. Ranma waited until the time was right and timed a dodging maneuver where he was right in Shampoo's face before she knew it and landed a swift kick to her sided with just enough power behind it to knock her off the log but not cause any injury. After all Ranma hated hitting girls and only did this because his honor was at stake and tried to limit the damage he caused to the girl.

Shampoo couldn't believe that she had lost so easily to an outsider let alone an outsider male. Shampoo had to think of a way to turn this situation to her advantage and thought of the Joketsuzoku rules were for outsiders beating a tribe member. Remembering that she was now obligated to marry the outsider she realized that she finally had a way to get Moose out of her life for good. Satisfied with her thinking Shampoo stood on her feet and walked over to the triumphant Ranma.

Ranma noticed the girl waling over to him and wondered what she was doing. (I hope she's not a sore loser like some of the other kids I've had fights with. Up till now she's been the biggest challenge I've had yet so she should be proud of the effort she put up I'm just better.)

What he got instead was a shock as Shampoo pointed at herself and said "Shampoo".

"Huh what did you say?"

Shampoo repeated the act once more and then pointed at Ranma.

"Oh you're name's Shampoo. I'm Ranma, Ranma Saotome."

"Wo de airen. Wo ai ni Ranma" exclaimed Shampoo as she forcibly pulled Ranma into a hug and gave him the Kiss of Marriage. (I don't really have feelings for this Ranma. He's just a tool to get rid of that stupid Moose)

Ranma however was standing there in stunned silence not having a clue what was going on. (What in the world did she just say and why did she kiss me?) Ranma's brain began to shut down at this point as his teenage hormones took control of his actions and forced him to return Shampoo's kiss shocking both parties involved as well as the crowd gathered around to watch.

Genma was watching the whole thing in rage (how dare that Chinese bimbo seduce Ranma like that he's promised to one of Tendo's girls hopefully I can get him away from here and that will be the end of it.)

"Oh very lucky sir that's the Kiss of Marriage, He been given great honor."

At that point Genma lost control of his emotions when he heard the word marriage. There was no way the panda was going to let that happen. Before anybody could even blink the panda had bounded across the arena knocked out his son with one powerful strike to the head, grabbed the unconscious body and took off for the coast.

(No that's my ticket to removing Moose from my life he can't leave.)

"_Shampoo my child what are you doing standing there you should be going after them to reclaim what is now yours by Joketsuzoku laws that you both agreed to."_

"_Yes Great-Grandmother I just need to pack for the long journey I expect this will be."_

"_Fine then Shampoo take this with you while you're gone. Study what's in there as I expect you to follow that boy to his home country and it would do well if you were at least able to speak the language while you're there."_ The thing Cologne handed her was a Mandarin to Japanese translation book.

"_Thank you Great-Grandmother."_(This may very well still work out now that I get to travel abroad and never even have to see that idiot anymore.)

* * *

author's note: I hope you enjoyed this. Comments are welcome. I currently have a rough outline for the next 4 chapters but no drafts written as of yet so it will be a little while longer before I have my next update ready.


	3. The Tendo Dojo

Chapter 3 The Tendo Dojo

Author's note: Thank you for all the reviews; it has been a pleasure to read them. I noticed in the reviews last chapter that some questions have been raised as to my intentions regarding the Ranma/Shampoo as a couple. All I can say is be patient the story has only just begun. I fully intend to develop the relationship much further than I have done at this point it will just take some. Thank you for all the reviews.

(Thought)

The usual disclaimer these are not my characters.

Soun Tendo was busy going through the mail that the postman had just handed to him. In the large stack of mail he found what appeared to be no less than fifteen letters in first class envelopes all addressed to Nabiki, another letter that was addressed to Kasumi from the friendly Dr. Tofu with what had to be tea stains on the edges of the envelope, and a small post card that drew his attention immediately. Part of this reason was that it was addressed to him and that it had a colorful picture of a giant panda eating a stalk of bamboo on the front. The back of the postcard had a poorly written message that Soun immediately recognized as the scribbling of his dear friend Genma Saotome. Curious as to what his dear friend had to say, Soun carefully read the deciphered Genma's writing, a major feat considering the fact that it looked by like Egyptian hieroglyphics instead of the Japanese it was supposed to be.

As he read the message, he broke into tears of joy that increased in volume the more he read. But just to be sure he hadn't made a mistake he reread the message three times to confirm that he had made the correct interpretation. "Girls come into the living room quickly, I've got great news I want to share with you. Kasumi, Nabiki, Akane come here!"

The girls slowly made their way into the living room to hear what it was that had gotten their father so excited. Kasumi was naturally the first to enter being the closest. She took only ten steps from the kitchen bringing with her the daily midday snacks which she had just finished preparing as well as a fresh pot of tea. She placed them on the table and sat down to wait for the rest of her sisters.

Nabiki was the next to arrive, dressed in a white kimono that she had been using in her most recent scheme that had proved to be her most successful enterprise yet. She would have changed clothes by now normally except she had started to read one of her favorite manga novels and lost track of what was going on around her until she heard Soun's excited yelling. Hearing her father this excited made her extremely interested in what was going on and it showed in her facial expressions as curiosity. That was temporarily replaced by happiness when she noticed the letters she had from her various 'associates'. When she returned her attention back onto her father her expression reverted back to its curious look she had before the distraction.

Akane, last as usual, arrived shortly thereafter still dressed in her white training gi sweat covering her entire body and specks of dust that used to be cement bricks covering the sleeve of her gi. Her mood was the complete opposite of Nabiki's curiosity. If anything she looked down right livid at the fact that her training had been interrupted by something that she wasn't going to care about in the first place anyway. (Geez dad why do you always pick the worst times to call family meetings, I still have to train so that I can beat that stupid mob up for good this time.)

With the whole family finally gathered together, Soun proceeded to divulge the good news to them. "Girls I have good news I want to share with you. My old friend and training buddy Genma Saotome is coming over with his son Ranma and as per an agreement between our families he is going to be the fiancé of one of you girls. As a part of the agreement the two of you will inherit the Tendo dojo and carry on our legacy securing it for the future."

"What the hell dad don't we get to have any say in this not to mention who we're going to marry!"

"Calm down Akane. Who knows this Ranma might be really cute. Eh Daddy?"

"Shut up Nabiki, not everyone thinks the whole world revolves around boys."

"Oh your one to talk when you've got an entire school chasing after you just to get a single date."

Soun missed this exchange between his younger daughters because of Nabiki's earlier comment about what he knew of Ranma and had started chuckling at that. "Girls it's alright to get excited because he'll be here any minute now."

"Father what's he like this Ranma." (Oh I hope he's older, younger men are well so young.)

"I'm afraid I don't know Kasumi because I've never met him."

"You've got to be kidding me! You expect me to believe that you got one of us married off to some guy you've never met. How the hell is that good news?"

"That won't be too bad of a problem because he and he's father are going to be staying here for a while giving you girls plenty of time to get acquainted with one another."

Thoughts to Soun's statement varied.

(Please I don't believe this.) was Akane's thinking and it was a surprise that she had managed to not break something in frustration over what she thought was the dumbest thing her father had done to date.

Kasumi thought about the weather and if it was going to force her to not be able to finish the laundry that afternoon sue to the light rain that had been going on for the past hour.

(Well things just got interesting 'round here, now how can I profit by this?) was Nabiki's immediate thought.

All Soun could think was (Hurry up Saotome, the anticipation is killing me).

A few blocks away people where gathering in a large crowd to witness the bizarre scene unfolding before their eyes in the light rain. There was a red-haired girl dressed in a red Chinese style shirt and black pants standing in a fighting position opposite a large panda also in a fighting stance. The crowd murmured amongst themselves trying to figure out what was going on. The redhead motioned the panda forward while saying "Your move pops". The panda immediately swung it's large furry arm and hit her in the chest with enough force to send her sliding backwards across the wet pavement.

The panda moved forward to get in range for another swing at Ranma, but this time she was ready for it. Ranma grabbed the furry arm being swung at her and used it as leverage to slam Genma into the pavement head first leaving behind a small impact crater the size of his fat panda head. "Well I'm going back to China and getting cured, so suck on that old man" said Ranma as she turned her back to the panda. She managed to take three steps towards the port they had arrived from when Genma had managed to recover from the blow due to his immense fat cushioning his head. He picked up a stop sign he had knocked over when he hit the ground and used it to knockout Ranma before she had taken another step. Genma, sensing he had won the fight, tossed the stop sign aside, picked up Ranma and headed down the street towards the Tendo Dojo.

It didn't take long for Ranma to wake up and immediately proceeded to let her anger show itself. She tried to hit the panda so that she could escape, but her efforts proved futile due to the way Genma had a hold of her. Every attempt to hit Genma turned into more of a flail instead of an actual attack. After a minute of repeated attempts to escape, Ranma realized that there was no escape until Genma decided to put her down.

"I've had enough of this pops now put me down!" screamed Ranma in what proved to be another fruitless attempt to escape her father's grasp.

"Oh my, it seems we have visitors."

"Ooh it must be Ranma."

"Hey Saotome we've been waiting for you to finally show" said Soun as he and Nabiki hurried to the front door to great their guests.

What they saw at the front door was not what they had expected and the sight of a redhead failing around in the arms of a panda made them retreat back into the living room. Ranma sensed that they had reached their destinations and had responded by attempting to escape again. The obviously shocked Tendos still had no clue what was going on and then the panda placed Ranma on her feet, still fuming about the current situation but not wanting to take out her anger on anyone else, facing Soun Tendo.

"You wouldn't be Ranma would you?" questioned Soun.

"Yes I'm Ranma Saotome" responded Ranma in a rather reluctant tone.

"Hey daddy I thought you said Ranma was a guy?" asked Nabiki as she proceeded to poke Ranma's rather large bust repeatedly, "'cause these are pretty real."

"Will you stop that."

This was more than Soun could handle and he fainted.

"Oh my, it seems father's fainted again."

When Soun finally came to he was greeted by the same scene he had just left. When the rest of the people gathered realized he had woken up the first to speak was Nabiki. "How could you make this big of a mistake daddy?"

"Well I assumed that Genma's 'son' was a boy." Soun replied placing emphasis on the word son.

"Boys don't have these daddy" exclaimed Nabiki as she resumed poking Ranma's breasts.

"I told you to stop that already!"

"Nabiki stop that, it's rude to molest our guests" scolded Kasumi.

"Hey Ranma, you study martial arts right? Why don't we have a little match" Akane questioned.

"Uh sure I guess" answered Ranma as the two of them left for the dojo.

"Kasumi could you get me some hot water?" signed Genma.

"Sure thing Mr. Panda" Kasumi responded as she went into the kitchen to perform her duties as hostess.

When she returned Genma used the hot water to change back into a human and proceeded to explain what had happened to his lifelong friend.

While that was happening in the living room, the two girls in the dojo prepared to fight a sparing match. Akane wasted no time was the match began by coming straight at Ranma and sent a punch straight for the face, but found the punch missing the mark as Ranma just tilted her head slightly to the side. Akane tried again with her other hand and met the same result. A minute passed of repeated attempts to strike Ranma and no strike had even come close to landing a hit. In fact Ranma had yet to even move her feet, until Akane sent a kick for Ranma's midsection. Ranma jumped over the kick and landed behind Akane right when her foot got stuck in the wall. A helpless Akane found herself on the floor in a crumpled heap just a moment later after Ranma had poked a pressure point on the back of her neck.

"Wow you're pretty good. I'm just glad you're not a boy."

Ranma grumbled angrily at that last comment and stormed of to go get some hot water.

"Hey what the hell is your problem…? Come back here I'm talking to you!"

Ranma just ignored her and made her way into the kitchen, found the hot water on the stove Kasumi had just placed on the stove to make some tea and dumped its contents on her head to trigger the transformation. "Ranma where are you I'm trying to talk to… who are you?

"I'm Ranma Saotome you stupid tomboy!"

Akane was infuriated by this and pulled out her large mallet and hit Ranma through the wall into the living room.

"Tendo I think we need to explain the situation to your family before things get out of hand."

"Yes we should Saotome my friend."

After a long explanation to the Tendo household about what had occurred in China but conveniently omitting the part about the Amazons because Genma quickly skipped that part not wanting to let his friend know that the pact might be in danger. Sensing that their story needed a little more help to get the girls to believe them, Genma picked up Ranma and threw him into the Koi pond.

"What you do that for you jerk?"

"Oh my now that really is interesting" (I'll defiantly be able to profit by this little development.)

Ranma grabbed Kasumi's tea kettle used all of it to change back, and then threw his father into the Koi pond in revenge. Soun now comprehending Ranma's curse clapped him on the back and said "well your problem isn't so bad after all. My eldest daughter Kasumi, my middle daughter Nabiki, and my youngest daughter Akane, pick whichever one you want and she's your fiancé.

(Geez you want me to make a decision on this now. And my only choices are the perfectly boring little housewife, the girl with ulterior motives and no concept of personal space, or the stupid tomboy. Could this get any worse?)

"Akane seems to be the wisest choice" stated both older Tendo girls at the same time.

(Never mind I spoke too soon.) "That's it I'm out of here. I don't care about this fiancé business and all I want is to get my cure, so good bye stupid uncute tomboy."

Wham

"Now that he had coming. Listen Tendo he just needs a little more time to get used to this idea, I mean I just told him about it this afternoon."

"I guess so Saotome, besides they just met. There's no need to rush things like this."

(Tendo I hope you're right about this and I also hope that Ranma and I lost that crazy Chinese bimbo back in China. Running into her again could jeopardize everything.)

Somewhere in the sea of Japan a purple-haired girl sneezed.

Sorry to all of you guys looking forward to Shampoo being featured again this chapter. You can take solace in the fact that it won't be long till she finds her prey I mean Ranma. Till next time any comments you want to make feel free.


	4. Furinkan's New Student

Chapter 4: ___Furinkan_'s New Student

(Thought)

The next morning Ranma woke up still feeling pain from where Akane's blow had hit him last night. The pain from the blow was subsiding, but his brain was busy thinking of ways to escape the unwanted arranged marriage and in his current state that intense mental activity was causing him to feel as if his pain had increased instead of getting better. (She didn't have to hit me so hard. Stupid curse and how it makes people treat me like something other than a guy.)

Genma didn't help things when he grabbed Ranma and threw him out the window and into the Koi pond so that they could have the traditional morning sparring session. A now wet and disgruntled red-head girl proceeded to beat her father until she was satisfied that all of her anger over her current predicament had been released. The ferocity of Ranma's attack caught Genma off guard and by the time it was over he looked like someone who had been run over by a steam roller several times and then tossed into a torn bush. A barely conscious Genma at this point managed to pry Ranma off of him and went into his special begging pose and admitted defeat for today so that he could get Ranma to stop beating him.

Ranma wasn't going to let Genma worm his way out of this one and threw him into the koi pond for a little more revenge. "Now you listen to me you stupid panda, if you hadn't made a scene back at that Chinese village we might be cured by now. Then to top that you surprise me with an arranged marriage I didn't ask for nor want."

"Ranma you sound like a little girl" signed Genma as he flipped it to the other side "And you know perfectly well why we can't go back to that village so get over it."

"Sure pops cause that girl was defiantly trying to kill me there can't be any other reason now can there" said Ranma in sarcastically.

Kasumi who had watched the whole incident from the living room immediately went into the kitchen while the argument between the Saotomes was unfolding. Kasumi instinctively knew that they would not want to stay in their cursed forms and grabbed the hot water she had prepared from the stove and placed it on the breakfast tray. She then picked up the tray and carried it into the living room calling out to the whole family "Everyone breakfast is ready". And the next thing she saw was that both house guests and rushed to the table wiping anything else from their minds for the time being.

The Saotomes each took turns using the hot water to change back into their normal forms as the rest of the Tendo household made their way to the table. Once everyone was seated they began eating and that meant the Saotomes stuffed their faces as quickly as possible to keep the other from stealing their food. Upon finishing Genma sprang another surprise on Ranma, "Ranma my boy starting today you're going to school".

"What? But I've got more important things to do like training and finding a cure. School's just going to get in the way of that stuff" stammered Ranma.

"Ranma we're going to be here a while and you actually need some skills in areas besides martial arts so you're going and that's final" stated Genma.

"Fine whatever I'm going" grumbled Ranma.

"Oh cheer up Ranma you'll be going to the same school as Akane and me" stated Nabiki as she got up from the table to walk to school.

"Thanks Nabiki that defiantly makes me feel better" sarcastically replied Ranma.

"Hey Nabiki wait up I want to walk with you to school" said Akane.

"Sorry Akane but no can do. I've got business to take care of so you'll just have to go with your fiancé."

"That's not fair Nabiki I don't want to be stuck with him" complained Akane.

"Well geez make me sound like sound diseased animal why don't ya. Besides it's not as if I want to walk with you anyways stupid tomboy" replied Ranma.

"Just forget it you jerk we got to go or we'll be late" responded Akane.

And with that the two of started their uneasy walk from the dojo to Furinkan High School.

Meanwhile over at the port Shampoo was disembarking from the ship she used to reach Japan. She was excited to finally see the world outside of her village. Wasting no time while sailing across the sea, Shampoo had spent her time studying the Mandarin to Japanese book her Great-grandmother had given her. The book had its uses for teaching how to speak basic Japanese quickly, but failed to supply grammar lessons. Through her studies of the book, Shampoo was now able to carry out some conversation. (Hope airen ready, cause here come Shampoo) thought Shampoo in Japanese. (Shampoo start thinking and speaking Japanese so Shampoo get too too good with Japanese.)

Once She was sure she was ready to journey, Shampoo used her special tracking technique to figure out where Ranma was using his chi presence. When she picked up the trail she found the largest concentration and began to work out the distance to him. Then Shampoo pulled out a map she took from an information booth upon arrival and discovered that it was a place called the Nermia ward.

Now that she had the location of her target Shampoo put away the map and began to head straight for her target. Her chosen path took her up and over the roofs of the buildings in her way to Ranma. By taking this path Shampoo was able to get a good view of the area while at the same time being the quickest route to her destination. From what she could see from her roof top path, Tokyo was a vast city much larger than anything she had experienced up to this point in her life. (Shampoo learn much here that can help tribe, just have to find airen and make him teach.)

This particular train of thought took control of her mind and as a result she failed to utilize her senses and notice the building she was about to jump to was under construction for a damaged, roof. Just in time to avoid a costly mistake Shampoo realized her situation and pulled out her sword from its hiding place and used it to slow her decent by stabbing a nearby wooden wall. (That was too too close. Shampoo have to pay more attention.) With that she swung herself up, pulled her sword out of the wall and tucked her sword back in its hiding place. Shampoo then jumped over to a nearby wall she hadn't noticed before to go around the broken path.

The wall was made of stone and surrounding a four story building with a large green space around it with many teenagers ambling about with book bags. There was a sign on the building that read ___Furinkan_ High School. Upon closer inspection of the grounds she noticed that over at the main gate there stood a blue haired girl painting from a recent work out next to a black haired boy wearing a red Chinese style short sleeved shirt and had his hair tied back in a pig tail. Beside them was a pile of beaten and severely males that were being dragged off by some of the by standing girls inside to the clinic. Shampoo watched as another boy stepped into the picture from behind a tree dressed in the traditional samurai robes and carrying a wooden bokken.

A minute earlier, Ranma could not believe what he had just witnessed. Akane had just beaten a large group of guys all trying to attack her while screaming that they loved her. The part of this that he couldn't believe was not that Akane could beat them but rather the fact that there was this large of a group that was trying to win her affections. (How anybody could want to date that tomboy is beyond me.)

"Wow Akane for an uncute tomboy you sure are popular with the guys" laughed Ranma.

"Shut up you jerk just leave me alone it's my business not yours" replied Akane threateningly.

But before Ranma could say anything about how he didn't care, another boy showed up from behind a tree carrying a wooden stick in his hand which Ranma recognized as a bokken.

"How dare you insult the beautiful Akane, and act so familiar with her on top of that you insolent welch" stated Kuno.

"Yo Akane, who's the idiot?" asked Ranma.

"Oh that's just Kuno and I would get away if I were you he's the best fighter in school" said Akane in a tone that implied a serious warning.

"Sure he is Akane…"sarcastically replied Ranma.

"Silence foul demon I'll not be insulted by a knave such as thee. I captain of the school's kendo club, the Blue Thunder of ___Furinkan High Tatewaki Kuno shall smite thee for your insolence."_

_"__Fine then, I Ranma Saotome of the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts accept your challenge."_

___And with that introduction finished the two began fighting with the whole school watching from the windows of their class rooms. Unknown to the combatants a certain purple haired Amazon was also watching from the shadows. Kuno charged at Ranma and tried to get the first strike with a swipe from his bokken, but hit a wall instead shattering it with surprising strength. Kuno tried again and struck a tree this time severing a branch from the tree. The branch fell straight for Kuno's head forcing him to roll away in order to dodge it. Having lost sight of his opponent in the roll Kuno began to frantically look for Ranma only to discover that Ranma was already coming at him._

___Ranma jumped in the air heading towards Kuno and spun in the air giving his kick greater force when it struck Kuno's head. The force behind the kick would have been enough to crush a normal person's head, except Kuno only felt a slight dizziness from the blow. Seizing the momentary advantage Ranma sent a flurry of rapid punches into his opponents midsection then followed that up with a powerful roundhouse kick to the same spot as the punches. A loud cracking sound filled the air as Kuno fell to the ground writhing in pain for a second before unconscious took him._

Smiling at his latest victory, Ranma walked over to where he had set his bag down for the fight. Unfortunately for him the same moment he picked it up was the same moment it started raining triggering the curse. The whole school gasped when they witnessed this from their class windows and immediately asked Nabiki for information. Never one to miss an opportunity to make money Nabiki sold the class information about Ranma, his trip to China, and his engagement to Akane making the males become jealous of the new student.

Over in the shadows, Shampoo was happy to have finally tracked down her airen and got a chance to witness the fight. She then began to move into the building once she saw Ranma head inside. However to avoid exposure she entered a different door and followed using her tracking technique. (Ranma is too too good fighter; Shampoo like that. Have to get his help training somehow while great-grandmother not here.) Eventually the trial stopped on the other side of a wall giving Shampoo the perfect opportunity to make an introduction. She pulled out a chui and smashed through the wall to surprise Ranma.

"Nihao Ranma."

"Shshshampoo how did you find me?" stammered a very shocked Ranma.

"That too too easy. Shampoo track you from village using Ranma's chi trail. Airen's chi too too strong."

The room that Shampoo had smashed her way into was nothing more than a small closet that Ranma was trying to find a way to heat some water in. That however was not possible in this room because there was no water source nor any method available to heat any water.

"Hey Shampoo you wouldn't happen to have any hot water would ya so I can change back?" asked Ranma.

"Shampoo has some but it no come free."

"Whatever it is name it and it's yours" exclaimed Ranma immediately.

"Shampoo want sparring match with you so Shampoo can fix holes in defense."

"Uh sure thing I guess, only it'll have to wait till this afternoon cause I have school."

"Aiyah Shampoo join you need to learn about outside world while here."

"Well alright then how about you just follow me and we'll take care of it." Said a rather confused Ranma as he thought (You know I never noticed before now but Shampoo is really cute)

(Shampoo no see how handsome airen is before cause Shampoo too busy thinking about how to get rid of Mousse and miss it) thought a delighted Shampoo.

Shampoo then gave Ranma a hot thermos she had with her for just this reason and watched as he proceeded to use it to change back into a male. Then the two teenagers walked out of the room and up the stairs to their new class room that Akane had told Ranma about on the way to ___Furinkan_ when the two went ignoring each other or shouting various insults at the other.

When they entered the room all the students fell silent and stared at the newcomers. The males in particular began drooling over the purple-haired amazon beauty before them. Luckily for them Shampoo was not looking at them or they would have seriously regretted it. The girls on the other hand where looking at Ranma then whispered to Akane "you're so lucky to get a cute guy like that to be you're fiancé."

Akane just ignored it feeling rage building up over how Ranma just disappeared then has another girl with him that she'd never seen before. (Wait does that mean I'm getting jealous about Ranma? No way, I would have to be in love with the jerk for that to happen) mussed Akane.

The teacher at that moment decided that it would be best to get the introductions over with and proceeded to say " Now class we have some new students today so please give them a warm ___Furinkan High welcome."_

_"__I'm Ranma Saotome the greatest martial artist this world is going to see and this is."_

_"__Shampoo of Chinese Amazons." Stated Shampoo as she then noticed the guys ogling her and added "keep staring at Shampoo like that and you find out what it like to have no little friend."_

That got the guys attention and they instinctively winched and looked away.

The rest of the school day went by slowly as both Ranma and Shampoo gave up trying to learn anything and started to sleep in class due to how boring their teacher was. Shampoo did actually learn one thing that day though, the basic Japanese that she had learned was not going to be enough and eventually she would have to learn much more.

The bell rang dismissing school with Akane going to head out with her friends for a movie and Ranma snuck out with Shampoo to look for a good place to hold the promised sparing match. Eventually they came across a vacant lot with lots of space for fighting without causing any collateral damage to nearby buildings.

"Alright Shampoo this place is perfect. Now when we spare I want this to be an unarmed match so lose the weapons" stated Ranma.

"Okay airen, Shampoo do what Ranma ask." Responded Shampoo as she then proceeded to pull out both Chui and her sword from their respective hiding places, and placed them over in a corner of the lot. Meanwhile Ranma walked over to a sprinkler and kicked the head off sending water shooting up from the ground drenching him.

"I hope it's alright, but I dislike having to fight girls so if you don't mind I'm going to use my cursed form for this match." Ranma said in a questioning tone.

"Make no difference to Shampoo, Ranma always be Ranma to Shampoo" stated Shampoo plainly.

"Well then let's get started" said Ranma as they bowed to each other.

The match began soon after with Ranma taking advantage of his girl forms speed. Ranma began by sending punches from multiple different angles to explore Shampoo's defenses. Shampoo managed to block each of them until she found herself caught off guard by a kick coming at her from below forcing her to jump back a few yards. Then Shampoo took the offensive and returned the favor to Ranma. Each opponent traded their blows with the other only to find each blocked or dodged until five minutes into the match Ranma began to notice a hole developing in Shampoo's defense. Seizing upon the opportunity Ranma scored a few quick hits then they stopped the match with Ranma as the winner. The two teens bowed to each other and thanked the other for the great match that had taken place.

This left Ranma thinking (Shampoo's a great sparring partner. She gave me a much better match than my worthless pops ever has so we'll have to do this again sometime.)


	5. An Unwanted Challange

Chapter 5: An Unwanted Challenge

Author's note: Sorry it's taken so long for this latest installment of the story. I would like to thank you all for the continued positive feedback I have received regarding this story as well as for the reviews that catch my mistakes. I Hope you enjoy this and I love to hear your feedback.

* * *

Ranma and Shampoo were exhausted after their sparing match and they decided to go to the Tendo Dojo for some refreshments. However, the journey from the vacant lot was interrupted by the sound of high pitch screams coming from the park. Deciding to investigate Ranma and Shampoo headed at top speed to the park. Upon arrival they found themselves staring at a peculiar sight even by their standards. There were three girls with cuts and scratches all over their body and each was currently unconscious while another girl dressed in a leotard and her hair tied up into a ponytail on the side of her head was laughing maniacally. Seeing more people coming to the scene prompted her to take off still laughing. Ranma was about to take off after her when the unconscious victims began to stir prompting her to try and figure out what was going on.

Shampoo beat him to it by asking the first girl alert enough to respond "What happen here?"

"Hey don't you go to Furinkan? You're that Chinese girl Shampoo right and who's that red head next to you?" asked the girl obviously trying to change the subject.

"Yes am Shampoo and this is…"

"A friend" added Ranma quickly trying to keep her secret safe from the student body "could ya tell us what happened here?"

"Well we're Furinkan's School Martial Arts Gymnastics team and we were just out here practicing for an upcoming match when that bitch surprise attacked us in order to keep us from competing in the match against her school."

"That too too dishonorable way to win when Shampoo find cowered girl Shampoo teach her lesson she never forget" promised Shampoo as she cracked her knuckles.

"Thank you but that won't be necessary Shampoo. I'd hate to ask but could you help us reach the Tendo Dojo we need to speak to Akane" replied the girl.

When they reached the dojo they found Akane in the training hall practicing her usual katas. Ranma remained there to listen to what the gymnasts wanted from Akane because she knew that most likely the old men would force Ranma to help any way and it was better to be knowledgeable about what was happening than be surprised later.

"Hey Akane do you have a minute we need to ask you something" questioned the Head Gymnast.

"What is it Ayame?"

"Well the injuries we sustained have made it impossible to recover before the match so we were wondering if you wouldn't mind being our replacement."

"Certainly I'll do it so that I can wipe the floor with that monster."

"Oh thank you Akane we'll help you prepare any way we can."

For the next hour and a half the gymnasts explained the rules to Akane, and then proceeded to try and practice some of the basics with her. They first used the ball because it was one of the simpler tools to master because it only required to be thrown at the opponent. Akane managed to grasp the concept, but was unable to try and do anything besides the basics with it. The clubs where skipped because everyone understood how they were used and knew that Akane already how to use them surprising Ranma. The ribbon however proved to be an immense challenge due to Akane not having any grace or control with them. After the third attempt to twirl the ribbon she managed to wrap it around herself unable to move. Kasumi interrupted the training at this moment to announce that dinner was ready keeping Ranma from saying the insult that was about to escape her lips about Akane being a klutz. Instead Ranma disappeared before anyone could even blink and was seated at the dinner table.

"Good luck training Akane we'll see you tomorrow" said the gymnasts as they took their leave.

Kasumi then noticed Shampoo standing beside Akane and asked "I don't think we've met, I'm Kasumi are you one of Akane's friends?"

"No Shampoo is friend of Ranma" responded Shampoo cheerfully.

"Would you like to stay with us for dinner Shampoo?" asked Kasumi.

"Shampoo love to" said Shampoo as she followed Kasumi into the dining room and ignoring the cold stares she was getting from Akane.

(What is Ranma hiding from us because he seems to know this 'Shampoo' much more than he's letting on) thought Akane angrily as she had no choice but to follow her older sister and the guest into the dining room as well.

"Nihao" exclaimed Shampoo as she entered the room causing Genma to seize up, turn to look at her then squeal like a little girl in a horror movie.

"Well geez pops who sounds like a little girl now huh?" said Ranma as she used the hot water Kasumi had brought with her to trigger the transformation.

A now male Ranma then grabbed Genma's shirt, because he was still squealing and making a scene, and punched him hard to try and make him shut up. When this didn't work Shampoo pulled out a chui, used it to hit Genma's skull and knocked him out with a loud crunching noise.

"Finally he shut up" exclaimed a relieved Nabiki.

"Oh my I guess Mr. Saotome isn't going to be eating for a while then" stated Kasumi flatly.

"It's alright Kasumi the idiot will probably wake up in a minute and act like nothing happened, so let's start eating without him" assured Ranma then he turned to Shampoo and whispered "thanks".

"Shampoo too too happy to hit stupid panda any time" Shampoo whispered back.

"Hey Ranma would you like to introduce us to your friend there?" asked Nabiki.

"Yes son who is this nice young lady you have with you?" asked Soun intently.

"Oh yeah, Mr. Tendo this is Shampoo we met in China shortly after the Jusenkyo incident" replied Ranma.

"And how exactly did the two of you meet?" inquired Nabiki.

"Well we went to her village with the guide 'cause he suggested it as a way to understand how to get a cure." said Ranma nervously not knowing what Nabiki was going to use the information for. "When we got there, the village was having a tournament so we decided to watch from this table that happened to have food on it."

"Wait don't tell me, you started to eat it" Nabiki stated.

"Uh yeah…" said Ranma guiltily.

"Ranma you're such a pig!" yelled Akane.

"Would ya mind letting me finish, besides we hadn't eaten anything all day when we saw it." Ranma replied yelling just loud enough to let everyone know to shut up and listen to him. "Anyway, we ate the food only to find out that the food was meant for the champion as a prize for winning the tournament which we couldn't have known since neither of us could read Mandarin and the guide stopped paying attention to us."

Shampoo decided to chime in at this point with "Shampoo win tournament and see Ranma and panda man eating prize food".

"Naturally she got upset and started yelling at us in mandarin only for use to give her confused stares" Ranma continued. "So we got the guide to translate for us and once we understood what the problem was, I figured that if I challenged her and won then the prize food we ate could technically not be a problem anymore."

"Good thinking son!" exclaimed Soun before he received a cold stare from Ranma letting him know that he wasn't finished yet.

"Shampoo agreed, but Ranma win fight and Shampoo gave Ranma small kiss." Added Shampoo sounding excited.

"So pops goes ballistic and runs off with me hung over his shoulder after he made sure to knock me out and that was the last we saw her until today" finished Ranma.

"So there's still one thing that bothers me about your story Ranma" said Nabiki after a minute of careful thought. "What was the point of that kiss Shampoo?"

"Aiyaa it be much easier if read this. Shampoo no can speak Japanese enough to explain properly." Answered Shampoo as she proceeded to pull out a book entitled Amazon Tribal Law to give to Nabiki.

Nabiki took a minute to read over the selected passage for a minute before deciding how to present the information in a manner that was favorable for the Tendo house. (I have to skew this so that it sounds ridiculous to Ranma and he'll choose not to honor this and remember his engagement to Akane because heaven knows she could use all the help in the world to pull this off with their current relationship.) She schemed before deciding to read aloud "It says here that the laws of the Amazon Tribe regarding outsiders are as follows. If the outsider beats a female warrior and that outsider is a woman then the Amazon must give the 'Kiss of Death' and kill without delay. However, if that outsider is a man then she must marry him."

Shampoo at first started to feel happy that Nabiki could read and understand the law and then realized that something wasn't right with the way it was being read, but she couldn't quite place what exactly was wrong due to her minimal Japanese language skills. (_I don't think that sneaky girl read the passage I pointed out properly. I'm going to have to learn better Japanese to do it myself.)_ Thought Shampoo bitterly as she realized that letting Nabiki read it had been a poor decision.

Genma choose at this moment to wake back up and pretend that fate was conspiring against him by saying "Oh woe is me to have such a tragedy befall upon us when there is but only one fiancé and that is Akane".

Akane however heard the whole thing and decided to get out of the room before she had to listen to any more of the fathers' antics accidentally giving off the vibe of being angry about this whole situation.

"Oh my Akane seems upset." stated Kasumi causing Soun to go into his demon head form.

"Ranma you better go make up with Akane this instant!"

"Hey what did I do she just walked out, if she really was angry she woulda hit me before leaving!" yelled Ranma in response.

This statement was not taken well by the fathers and they continued to stare icily at Ranma hoping he would take the hint and go after Akane. Ranma however just sat there and finished his meal before deciding to leave. The fathers thought he was finally doing the right thing in their eyes, but Ranma was just going to go up onto the roof to get a little alone time to think the recent developments over.

Shampoo noticed that the icy stares were now directed at her and decided that it was best to leave before things got out of hand. She was ready to fight at any time, but figured that this was not one of those times when picking a fight would be the worst possible thing to do right now. Shampoo bowed and thanked Kasumi for the meal got up and left to go find a place to stay the night. She decided to pitch a tent in the abandoned lot where she had spared with Ranma just that afternoon.

Meanwhile Akane had decided to try to practice one more time with the ribbon to see if she could gain better control over the complicated tool. Her efforts proved futile as she once again found herself completely inept at controlling the ribbon's movements. In her frustration at her failure, Akane kicked the ball in front of her sending it bouncing around the dojo before it came to a halt by the door. Akane then left the dojo feeling frustrated at having progressed no further than when she had started.

Ranma, currently lying on his back on the roof, was deep in thought about what he should do regarding his fiancés. (The men are intent on me marrying Akane, but neither of us seem particularly thrilled at the idea nor show signs of trying to work something out. Based on how our relationship is I think that Akane would make a terrible wife for me, but she could be a nice friend. Shampoo on the other hand would be a much better choice I guess, but that law thing was kinda weird and made it sound like it was an obligation and not real love so that could be a problem. Hang on didn't Shampoo have this look that made it clear she wasn't happy about the way Nabiki read the passage. Nabiki might have done something then to screw the meaning of it how typical of her. Guess I'll have to talk to Shampoo about it once I get the chance.)

Having made a decision on how to progress from here, Ranma decided that it was time to sleep given that tomorrow was going to be a rough day and it was already getting late.

The next day saw the Tendo household wake up to what was now the usual routine with Kasumi making breakfast in the kitchen, Akane out for a jog, Soun reading the Newspaper, and the Saotomes fighting again outside. This meant Ranma managing to kick Genma into the pond yet again and laughing in the panda's face before getting splashed as well. Kasumi stopped the fighting when she announced breakfast was ready. Everyone began eating their meal while the Saotomes wolfed down everything within reach. Unlike usual, today's meal had zero conversation because of the incident last night forcing Ranma to make an exit as fast as he could.

Along the way to Furinkan he was met by a very high spirited Shampoo.

"Nihao Ranma."

"Yo Shampoo good to see ya again." replied Ranma cheering up slightly from the poor start to the morning at seeing his friend at least cheerful given the circumstances.

"Ranma look like he want to ask Shampoo something." stated Shampoo casually.

"Uh yeah I do. About that passage last night…" Ranma started.

"Wicked girl change meaning of words and even Shampoo with poor Japanese could tell." fumed Shampoo.

(Well that clears that up. I figured Nabiki did something.) thought Ranma before he said "Anyway Shampoo could you explain it properly then since it seems Nabiki choose not to do it properly."

"As Shampoo already said Shampoo no have enough Japanese to do that yet. So Ranma be patient and wait till Shampoo can yes?"

"Well I guess I could" Ranma said figuring that it was probably for the best that he wait until Shampoo could do it herself.

"Ranma Saotome tis time to pay for your transgressions." Kuno cried as he charged at Ranma only to meet Ranma's foot and have that followed up by a chui strike to the chin that sent him flying into orbit.

"Hey Shampoo I coulda handled that myself…" complained Ranma.

"Shampoo know that, Shampoo just want some of fun too." interjected Shampoo before Ranma could say something he might regret latter.

"Do ya mind letting me handle it next time unless I ask for help?" questioned Ranma.

"Sure thing Ranma." Shampoo reasoned.

Throughout the school day Ranma paid little attention if any to the teachers instead finding himself drifting off to sleep. Shampoo was doing the same until it was time for a lecture on Japanese language skills needed for the professional world. Shampoo figured that she needed all the help she could get to start overcoming the language barrier.

Time passed slowly until the School bell rang sending everyone scrambling for the exits so that they could start enjoying the weekend. However before anyone left the school yard, they stopped when a crazy maniacal laughter filled the air followed by the appearance of a girl in a leotard surprise attacking Akane.

"Akane Tendo prepare to die for challenging I Kodachi the Black Rose!" she yelled while swinging a mallet to try and hit Akane.

But before she could land a strike on Akane Ranma caught her attention when he yelled out "Hey aren't you the one that attacked the Furinkan Gymnasts?"

"Oh my you're a good looking one, and may I ask you you're name my darling?" called back Kodachi ignoring Ranma's question.

"Uh Ranma, Ranma Saotome" said Ranma hesitantly as the thought (Oh please don't let this girl start hitting on me. I'll do anything to make her go away).

"Well my darling Ranma it is true that I attacked them, but only to save them the embarrassment of a humiliating loss at my hands in the competition. But they don't know to quit and grab a subpar replacement so I must do the same with her as with those other poor girls. However I might be willing to give her a pass if you date me."

"Ranma is already taken you crazy girl." Yelled Shampoo starting to feel jealous that another girl was trying to take away her man not that Shampoo would acknowledge that that was what she was feeling right now.

"Ranma darling is this true that you have already been claimed by another?" questioned Kodachi surprised that there would be such opposition to her proposal.

(Thank you Shampoo for giving me a way out of this mess.) "Yes it is true, I already have fiancés." said Ranma before he could stop himself.

"Oh engaged to more than one girl I see now I'll just have to do something about them then" reasoned Kodachi.

"Crazy girl leave now or Shampoo forced to kill you" threatened Shampoo.

(Don't tell me that this girl has a claim on my Ranma darling.) "Ranma darling I shall be back do not worry I shall deal with this harlots in due time." And with that Kodachi disappeared in a cloud of black rose petals and the sound of cackling.

"Well at least she's gone now... Hey you alright Akane?" asked Ranma as he noticed Akane standing there looking more furious than he had ever seen.

"That witch is going down! Come on Ranma you're helping me train!" yelled Akane venting some of her anger.

"Can Shampoo help too?" asked Shampoo a little more subdued than she normally would be given the wrath she sensed coming from Akane was surprisingly reminding her of an extremely angry Cologne.

"I don't see why she can't help out eh Akane the more help the better." said Ranma as cheerfully as he could manage thought truth be told the last thing he wanted was to be left alone with an Akane this furious.

"Fine whatever just as long as it helps me kick that girl's ass" Akane managed to say while slowly bringing her anger levels down to normal.

Once the trio arrived at the dojo, they immediately went into the training hall to start practicing. Akane violently threw the doors open still angry about the earlier incident and as a result wasn't paying attention to her surroundings, stepped on the ball she had kicked earlier. The result was that she slipped and landed funny causing her ankle to twist before the rest of her body landed on top of it causing the bones in the ankle to snap.

"OUCH! My leg hurts."

"Well geez Akane you're really clumsy" chided Ranma.

"Will you just shut up and go get help. This really hurts you know!" Akane snapped.

Sometime later Dr. Tofu arrived when Kasumi had called and asked for him to take a look at Akane's leg when she heard the news form Ranma. He took one look at the ankle in question and announced to everyone standing in the room. "She definitely broke her ankle and won't be able to do anything on it for at least a month. The brace I've put on it should be adequate enough if she doesn't try to do anything strenuous. Take care."

"Oh my poor Akane what will happen now?" questioned Kasumi.

"Well it seems we now need a replacement for the replacement" said Nabiki as she eyed Ranma.

"Ranma my boy that'll be your job" declared Genma emphatically.

"What! Why do I have to besides I'm a guy and you have to be a girl to compete…"

Splash

"You do realize that I hate you right?" said Ranma darkly.


	6. Gymnastics Showdown

Chapter 6 Gymnastics Showdown

Author's notes: This Chapter took much longer than anticipated, sorry for that. It seems that my current schedule for the next little bit will only allow me to update about once a month. The next Chapter I hope will not take quite so long. Enjoy.

* * *

"Why stupid panda make Ranma fight for clumsy girl it her fight not his?" shouted Shampoo angrily.

"Because she's his true fiancé and it's his honor as a man to defend her and help her out of tough situations like this." Retorted Genma furiously.

"Why force Ranma to do it when he no want to?" Shampoo countered.

"Because as his father I know what's best for him and that's a Tendo girl not some Amazon we met out in the wilderness!" Genma shouted not able to keep his cool any longer.

"**Will you just shut up already!**" Ranma bellowed in order to be heard over the screaming argument. "First off I sure as hell don't believe that you care about my future only your stomach being filled pops while you never have to work another day in your life. Second I will do this, but I got personal reasons for wanting to beat her and none of them include Akane's honor. So pops get outta here so I can actually work."

Panicking at Ranma's sudden outburst, Genma hightailed it out of the dojo training hall to go play shogi with Soun.

After he was gone Ranma turned to Shampoo and burst out laughing unable to contain himself any longer.

"What Ranma find so funny?" asked Shampoo confused as to Ranma's sudden change in behavior.

"Did you see his face just now?" sputtered Ranma between his laughter.

"What Ranma mean?" Shampoo questioned not entirely sure what Ranma saw; truth be told she was staring at Ranma the whole time through the outburst.

"That was mostly an act to make him leave me alone, but he thought I was going to kill him right here and now. As tempting as that is he isn't worth it and besides as far as I know he's the only family I've got left." Ranma explained.

"If Ranma say so" said Shampoo hesitantly "We practice now right?"

"Yeah don't want to embarrass myself" decided Ranma.

Shampoo pulled out her chui and proclaimed "If Ranma can block these with clubs then should have little trouble with match no?"

Picking up the clubs and twirling them around in her hands, Ranma became confident and said "You're on Shampoo."

The two girls went at each other with their respected choice weapons. Ranma quickly discovered that against the chui her clubs were not very effective blocking tools and was forced to start dodging to avoid attacks. Shampoo kept up the momentum and began driving Ranma back. Shampoo started to pick up the intensity of her attacks to further get Ranma off balance a feat considering how flexible Ranma was while in girl form. Then without warning Shampoo found her attacks diverted around the red-head's body with one hand and the other was following up with a beautifully time strike forcing Shampoo on the defensive. Ranma's attacks become faster with each passing second as she gained familiarity with the clubs.

Shampoo couldn't believe what she was seeing Ranma had gone from barely able to use the clubs to a natural in just under a minute and she was getting exponentially better as this sparing match dragged on. (I k_new Ranma was good, but I never imagined that Ranma could learn this quickly. Given enough time to train I bet he could go toe-to-toe with great-grandmother soon.)_ thought Shampoo in mandarin temporarily forgetting that she needed to use Japanese as much as possible in order to become fluent as soon as possible because she was impressed by Ranma's skills.

Before she knew what had happened the next thing the Amazon knew she was on the floor looking up at a club in her face. "Ranma is too too good learner. Beat Shampoo fast."

Of course I did, I'm the greatest Martial Artist ever and I never lose..." boasted Ranma

Bonk

"Ranma get too cocky and let Akane beat him if continue like this. Up to Shampoo to remind Ranma to focus so that no happen."

"Hey what's that supposed to mean?" complained Ranma slightly offended while rubbing the top of her head.

"Exactly what Shampoo say. Getting too too cocky make many vulnerabilities in fighter's defenses" explained Shampoo remembering her lessons from Cologne.

"Where'd you learn that philosophy?" questioned Ranma.

"Shampoo's great-grandmother matriarch of whole tribe" answered Shampoo.

"Mind if we start going over the other tools now I need to be prepared properly for this match" said Ranma picking up the ribbon.

"How Ranma learn how to use tools so quickly?" asked Shampoo hopefully trying to learn his secret so that she could advance her training as quickly as Ranma was able to.

"Oh yeah uh, I can watch a person's movements and easily incorporate them into my style, like your chui for example. I just had to watch your movements for a little while then I used the clubs to mirror them but slightly different since these are so similar."

"Ranma is really quick learner then." (Great-grandmother have fun training Ranma.)

"Yeah it comes with the training I've had my whole life, anything martial arts related and I can learn it before you knew what hit ya" boasted Ranma.

"This no time to boast Ranma, match is tomorrow with crazy girl and if you no win Shampoo be disappointed Shampoo bother help train you." Shampoo said calmly.

"Then why are we wasting time standing around let's get working." Responded Ranma quickly.

Throughout the rest of the night, Shampoo worked Ranma until each tool could be used competently and then some. The teens had so much fun continuously sparing with one another that time passed quickly. After one of their sparing matches they each complemented the others skills then could smell Kasumi's cooking coming from the kitchen.

"Ranma breakfast is ready" called Kasumi in her usual sweet tone.

Fatigue kept the martial artists from zooming into the dining room like they normally would have and instead they staggered slowly into to room. When they sat down to eat Ranma showed just how tired she was by trying to eat the dish rag Kasumi had brought with her.

"Hey Kasumi these noodles are kinda tough." Ranma mumbled while trying to bite the rag.

"That's a dish rag Ranma." Kasumi said giggling.

"Oh so it is" realized Ranma as she dropped it and proceeded to pass out from exhaustion.

"Shampoo what exactly did the two of you do all night to make him that tired?" insinuated Nabiki.

"Why Shampoo tell? Devious girl just alter words so you make Shampoo say what not actually said. Shampoo never tell you anything now." Snorted Shampoo furiously remembering the last time see spoke to Nabiki.

(Shit she figured out I sabotaged her already? How I thought it was subtle enough to get away with that) Nabiki thought realizing she had been caught for one of the few times in her life.

Shampoo however just smiled as if nothing had happened making Nabiki feel even more agitated before she eventually left. As she turned her attention to the red-head Shampoo noticed that Ranma was fast asleep and it would take some serious work to wake her up. Rummaging through her pack Shampoo thought (where is special spice great-grandmother give Shampoo) when she found it after a minutes worth of searching she screamed, "Aiyah found it!"

"Found what?" asked the Tendos still in the room.

"Special spice that wake Ranma up. This too too special Chinese Amazon herb that village warriors use to replenish body and fight fatigue." Shampoo said as if everybody should have known.

Shampoo before anyone could say another word bent down next to Ranma and forced her into a sitting position suitable for drinking and dumped ice cold water on the poor girl. Now awake Ranma glared at Shampoo and was surprised to see her offering a cup of tea with some strange leaves sprinkled in the broth.

"Ranma drink up and feel much better" ordered Shampoo.

Ranma was hesitant but drank it anyway and immediately felt energized again. To capitalize on her new energy Ranma began eating everything edible on the table in her usual gusto.

"My Ranma has got quite the appetite this morning" stated Kasumi simply.

"Mmmmmphf"

"Ranma don't try to talk with your mouth full you idiot. Have you ever learned any table manners?" Akane reprimanded.

After swallowing what food was still in her mouth Ranma retorted "I ain't got time for this we gotta head out anyway if we're going to make the match on time."

"We aren't finished here Ranma…" Akane started before Ranma took off "Hey you jerk I'm trying to talk to you."

"Come on Shampoo or we'll be late" was all Ranma could say.

"Ranma you jerk!"

Shampoo was surprised at Ranma asking her to follow but she wasn't one to miss an opportunity with her friend.

Once they were far enough away from the Dojo, Ranma awkwardly asked "yo Shampoo would you mind being my second for the match 'cause I'll need one in order to get the tools during the match?" As Ranma finished her request, her face started to turn a deep shade of red while thinking (I'm feeling very wired right now. It's as if I'm desperately hoping she'll say yes. Why is that I've never felt this way before.)

(What Ranma blushing for? Could it be Ranma actually embarrassed having to ask for help or something else?) Shampoo pondered for a moment before remembering the question she was supposed to answer "Shampoo be too too happy to help Ranma".

"Thanks Shampoo that really means a lot" said Ranma visibly relieved.

Once they arrived at the arena they were met by none other than Kodachi Kuno who immediately recognized Shampoo's unique purple hair.

"Oh what's this the commoner that dared challenge me has chickened out? Can't say I'm surprised since I have humiliated all that dare face me." Kodachi said pompously.

"Well you sure gotta big mouth for such a big coward." Ranma said nonchalantly.

"And who are you that dare insult me you red-haired harlot?" retorted Kodachi venomously.

(This be too too easy if Ranma already in crazy girl's head before match even start. Shampoo can't wait till match) thought Shampoo while trying to hold back her laughter when she imagined what was in store for Kodachi.

"Akane broke her leg training so I'm her replacement." replied Ranma lazily.

"You there Chinese Bimbo is this true?" commanded Kodachi.

"Name Shampoo stupid girl, and yes clumsy girl did break leg" replied Shampoo.

"If that's true then Ranma darling is all mine now that she's out of the way." Kodachi exclaimed happily.

"Is you stupid stupid?" Shampoo blurted out before she could stop herself. "Clumsy girl not only one after Ranma."

"Oh that's right you consider yourself to be a 'fiancé' of his. Well let me give you some advice to clear up your misunderstandings, Ranma will not pursue the likes of a harlot such as yourself. When put in competition with myself you'll surely lose to my wealth from the Kuno estate the richest in all of Tokyo. So quite now before you get hurt." Kodachi boasted proudly.

"It take more than money to win Ranma's heart stupid." Shampoo retorted instinctively.

"You don't get it do you girl? With my wealth I can buy anything Ranma desires; he would be a fool to deny my love." Kodachi proclaimed.

Before the situation got any more out of hand Ranma finally managed to be heard over the bickering girls, "If I beat you Kodachi then you need to give up your chase for Ranma."

"How can you say such things to me? What is my Ranma darling to you?" Kodachi yelled furious.

"I am Ranma Saotome, and I'll say it again give up once I beat you." said Ranma.

"How can you lie to me so blatantly? Rama darling is a man not some red-haired harlot!" growled Kodachi angrily while thinking (although she does look kinda similar to him, his sister perhaps? Then why is trying to stop me? I'm clearly best for Ranma so she should be supporting me not blocking me.)

"Sounds like you're scared to me. What's the matter afraid of losing to an amateur?" joked Ranma.

"How dare you insolent girl continue to insult your betters, for that I promise you that Ranma shall become mine after I have dealt with you in the match." promised Kodachi.

"Fine your on just don't take it personally when I kick your ass." Ranma said defiantly.

With that they parted for their respected changing rooms vowing to destroy the other, but for different reasons. Ranma found the changing rooms rather easily and Shampoo followed the red-head inside to make sure no surprises were waiting for them. Luckily enough there were none which allowed Ranma to change into her leotard in peace however much she wished otherwise.

Once it was on they heard the announcer call them to the center ring "Ladies and Gentlemen, the time for today's anticipated match has begun between the Challenging team from Furinkan High and the Champion team from St. Hebereke's School for Girls. Today's match will feature each team's top gymnast and now for the introductions. The challenger is making her way to the ring."

The crowd from Furinkan started murmuring amongst themselves once they saw their representative. They knew it must be theirs because the instantly recognizable Shampoo was standing next to her casually, even if none of them knew who the strange girl was. And one boy's comments summed up their collected thoughts "Haven't seen her around before surprisingly 'cause she is definitely the second hottest girl in school next to Shampoo of course. So we should have seen her before now."

"That girl in pigtails she is an exquisite beauty and must become mine. Pig-tailed girl my love I must know thy name!" Kuno yelled loudly for all to hear.

"Hey Kuno baby I thought Akane was your one true love." Nabiki whispered into Kuno's ear startling him that she was there and he never even realized it before now.

Is only response was "Surely you jest Nabiki Tendo, a man of such high status as myself is allowed to have multiple loves." And before she could respond Kuno leapt out of his seat and jumped straight at Ranma screaming "pig-tailed girl come to me my love!"

Ranma immediately started freaking out and froze in fear that she had never imagined before now, and it quickly became her worst nightmare. Luckily though Shampoo noticed what was going on and smacked Kuno high into the air with her chui before he knew what had happened.

"… And in the other corner we have the champion of the gymnastics world Kodachi Kuno." The announcer yelled into the microphone not caring at all about the incident that had taken place below.

As Kodachi entered the ring the song Crazy Train was playing over the loud speakers.

(Well she certainly is crazy so it fits well I guess) thought Ranma trying her hardest not to laugh.

Once on stage the announcer called out "contestants the first to fall out of the ring will lose, ready? Begin!"

Immediately the two combatants flew at each other with the clubs. Ranma struck first, but quickly found herself on the defensive having underestimated Kodachi's ability to counter. Kodachi was attacking with numerous strikes in the blink of an eye making Ranma frustrated that she had gotten into this position. After blocking a minutes worth of these strikes, Ranma ducked down to avoid the attacks and be in place to exploit a weakness in her defense. This would have worked had it not been for Kodachi expecting this and adjusted accordingly to keep Ranma on the defensive.

Frustrated even more, Ranma began to think of other strategies to get out of this situation when Shampoo threw a ball to her. Instinctively Ranma kicked the ball Straight at Kodachi's chest scoring a direct hit. Kodachi was forced to drop her clubs making them fall to the ground in a surprisingly large pile.

Shock prevented Ranma from capitalizing on her opponent's situation allowing Kodachi to pull out her ribbon on twirl it around her like a defensive shield. Ranma's attack was caught by the 'shield' and snapped her clubs just above the handle making them useless. This forced Ranma to backflip to her corner and get a ribbon passed up from Shampoo.

"Ladies and Gentlemen we are defiantly in store for a treat today. Both contestants seem to be evenly matched, but now that this contest has moved onto ribbon usage, can Challenger Saotome withstand Champion Kuno's specialty?" shouted the announcer over the microphone loud enough for people outside the arena to hear.

"Hahahaha foolish girl this is where you lose and admit that Ranma darling is all mine!" Kodachi screeched.

Fighting the urge to gag Ranma retorted "what are you talking about I haven't even been taking this seriously yet".

Kodachi used her ribbon to start throwing things at Ranma to wipe that smirk off her face. The first thing thrown was a table which Ranma simply jumped over. After that each combatant started to throw any and every object left lying around the room at each other. This resulted in all the objects colliding and forming large piles just to the side of the ring.

Eventually the sounds of Kuno falling from the sky screaming "I love you pig-tailed girl!" could be heard. Having run out of throw able objects, Kodachi used her ribbon to wrap around Kuno and throw him at Ranma who countered by throwing Genma in Panda form.

When the idiots collided they fell to the ground unconscious, causing Shampoo to laugh. Seeing two people she didn't like in such a manner was incredibly funny to her and found herself imagining Mousse in the same treatment. That daydream was broken up when Kodachi threw a razor hoop that broke the rope without warning.

Kodachi had grabbed another hoop with her ribbon and started swinging it around trying to slice Ranma in half. This tactic proved futile as Ranma's girl form was much too quick and flexible to get hit or even need to block the attacks. Ranma was however forced to drop the ribbon and just started to tease Kodachi for her inability to land a hit.

"What's the matter, can't hit the weakling?" Ranma taunted.

"You vile girl stay still and accept you defeat" snapped Kodachi.

"Ranma catch!" yelled Shampoo tossing Ranma a ribbon.

Catching the ribbon Ranma called back "Don't think so Kodachi, why don't you get a piece of your own medicine" as she flicked the ribbon at Kodachi. The ribbon came with a surprise at the end of it in the form of one of Shampoo's chui tied to the end of it. The chui slammed into her chest with incredible speed and knocked her clear out of the ring before she even knew what had hit her.

"Champion Kuno has been forced out of the ring. Challenger Saotome has won in shocking fashion." The announcer broadcasted "this one has been one of the greatest matches we have seen in a while folks, I hope you all enjoyed this special treat.'

"I can't believe it, but I have been defeated. As promised I will abandon my current attempts to win Ranma's heart" Kodachi stammered before running away crying.

"Well at least that's finished, too bad it made her cry. I never could stand making a girl cry" said Ranma.

With that finally taken care of Ranma stripped out of the leotard and changed into the traditional red Chinese outfit and was immediately greeted by a hot water bath. Shampoo then took the thermos she had dumped on him and placed it back in her bag simply saying "Ranma too too happy to be man again yes?"

"Yeah no kidding. Thanks Shampoo" replied Ranma.

"Good job son, way to uphold the honor of the School of Anything Goes exactly what I'd expect from Akane's Fiancé." Soun Tendo said proudly.

"Will you give it a rest Mr. Tendo I'm too tired to deal with that nonsense; so can we leave already?" Ranma stated.

Meanwhile up in the top row of seats, standing in the shadows was a small elderly person holding onto a staff who said to herself "Well son-in-law you truly are as talented as my great granddaughter thinks you are, but it seems you are much too dense to see what's right in front of you. Guess that means I'll just have to open up those eyes of yours won't I."


	7. Ranma meet Cologne

Remember:

_Mandarin_

(Thoughts)

* * *

Chapter 7 Ranma meet Cologne Matriarch of the Joketsuzoku

When Ranma got back to the dojo he quickly ate dinner then feeling the fatigue from the previous morning catching up to him, he went to sleep. Had he known what was staring into his room he might have slept elsewhere that night and hide rather than sleeping put in the open.

Kodachi Kuno watched from a nearby perch as Ranma walked in and fell asleep on his pad. She waited a few more minutes to be sure he was asleep before sneaking up to the window and crawling into the room. She pulled out her special paralysis powder and sprinkled it over the poor guy to ensure he couldn't escape.

"Now Ranma darling accept fate and make me yours" cried Kodachi.

Of all the things to wake up to that was certainly one of the worst. Ranma woke up in a state of pure panic recognizing the voice instantly and dreading what she wanted. He would have started yelling at the top of his lungs and trying to run as far away as possible except the powder kept him from being able to move or even speak. As he was forced to watch the nightmarish scene unfold before his eyes he then had a stroke of luck in the form of a purple-haired rescuer that had snuck up behind Kodachi and surprised her.

"Nihao" said Shampoo with a threatening tone causing the gymnast to jump in surprise and alarm.

Shampoo capitalized on her surprise and blasted Kodachi through the roof, clear across town and when she landed it was hard enough to break a few ribs.

"Ranma get too too good sleep now okay" cheerfully called Shampoo as she left an extremely grateful Ranma behind trying to finally sleep.

The next morning the dojo was back to its normal routine. The Saotomes were sparing in cursed forms thanks to Genma waking up Ranma by throwing him into the koi pond and Ranma returning the favor. The resulting match ended with the panda lying in a crumbled heap, twisted like a pretzel and Ranma just walking off satisfied with his work. In his opinion the panda had gotten exactly what it deserved.

Breakfast was much less tense than the previous morning without the presence of Shampoo. The fact that Ranma and Shampoo already had a good friendship building, and that Ranma had yet to get along with Akane was reason for concern for the fathers. They worried that their dream retirement was in serious jeopardy. However neither would discuss it aloud for fear of ruining whatever relationship Ranma and Akane had managed to form. Not that the two teens need help coming up with reasons to be mad at each other. This morning it was an argument about Ranma waking into the bathroom to wash up after his sparing match not realizing that Akane was already in there taking hers.

"Geez Akane I already told ya I didn't know you were in there." Ranma yelled.

"You just wanted to see me in the nude you pervert."

"Why would I want to look at a flat chested Tomboy? I've already told ya if I ever want to look at a girl's body I just have to look in a mirror" retorted Ranma bitterly.

"You're such a pervert! You enjoy being like that don't you? Well you know what take this" Akane screamed before she smacked Ranma with the mallet. As Ranma was flying away, Akane muttered under her breath "jerk".

Ranma was sent flying straight towards the vacant lot that Shampoo had decided to set up camp. The loud thud he made when he hit the ground was enough to wake Shampoo from her slumber. Shampoo had been up late the previous night ensuring that Ranma would not have any more surprise visitors. The tiredness immediately vanished at the sight of Ranma to start her morning.

"Nihao Ranma. What bring you to Shampoo so early?" Shampoo asked cheerfully.

"Oh Akane and I had another argument and she sent me flying" replied Ranma casually.

""Why Ranma like arguing so much with stubborn violent girl like Akane?" questioned Shampoo.

"Hey I never said I like it" said Ranma slightly offended at the idea.

"Shampoo just teasing silly Ranma." said Shampoo as she burst into laughter at the sight of Ranma's face.

"Sorry Shampoo I'm just a little bit on edge right now because of what happened last night, by the way thanks for that. I'd be a goner if you hadn't intervened." Ranma said.

"Shampoo too too happy to rid Ranma of crazy girl" Shampoo said beaming.

"Well I got to go Shampoo, see ya around" called Ranma as he left to go walk around town.

Shampoo contemplated going after her airen to ask if he wanted another sparing match when she froze in place hearing a familiar voice behind her. "I see son-in-law must be really special to you Shampoo."

"Great-grandmother when you get here?" exclaimed Shampoo in shock.

"Long enough to see what you think of him my child" Cologne responded in her usual cryptic manner. "Before you say anything, I have a plan to make him open his eyes and see that you love him. Trust me"

(_Every time she says that phrase she expects me realize what I should be doing on my own. What could she possibly be planning, cause if it backfires then this will not end well_) thought Shampoo slipping back into mandarin. Eventually she responded to try and get more clarification on what the Amazon elder had said "Shampoo no understand why need help getting Ranma to notice."

"Just trust me child you'll thank me later because after I'm done the future son-in-law won't be able to stop thinking about you" Cologne stated before she hopped off on her walking stick.

Shampoo just stood there still trying to figure out what the matriarch was going to try and do, but her mind wandered to other thoughts. (_How did it come to this? I had originally started this to get Mousse to leave me alone, but the more time I've spent with Ranma the more I want to be with him. He is the greatest sparring partner I've had, our skills complement each other well and there are many things we can teach each other to get better at our martial arts skills. Plus I always seem to feel more alive whenever you're around, oh Ranma why can't I just tell you how I feel?_)

Ranma meanwhile was casually walking around the park enjoying the nice weather. Whistling to himself he thought about his most recent meeting with Shampoo (when did it suddenly get so hard to talk to Shampoo? First we're friends and then it suddenly feels different. I'll never understand what's going on 'cause pops is an idiot and I don't know anybody that could actually explain the situation to me…)

These thoughts were interrupted by his danger sense activating and causing him to jump to his right and away from the lake. When he finished his dive he rolled onto his feet and positioned himself ready for a fight.

"Well now Sonny boy you really are as good as Shampoo seems to think you are" said Cologne calmly.

"Do I know you old-ghoul?" asked Ranma earning a smack to the head with the walking stick for his troubles. "Hey what was that for?"

"You should show respect to your elders' young man" responded the matriarch.

"Yeah whatever, just who are you anyway?" asked Ranma.

"I am Cologne matriarch of the Joketsuzoku and Shampoo's Great-grandmother." stated the elder simply.

"What do you want old ghoul?" Ranma asked annoyed before he was bonked on the head for his rudeness.

"I'm here to test your skills as a warrior so that I know what areas you are lacking in before you can join us." Cologne replied calmly.

"What the heck are you talking about old ghoul?" Asked Ranma confused.

Exasperated Cologne just ignored Ranma's rudeness and answered "You'll understand soon enough, but for now all you have to know is we're going to have little match to test your martial arts skill."

"Alright you're on" replied Ranma eagerly.

Without any further discussion, Cologne began the challenge. She decided to simply toy with the boy and show her superior skill to make him eager to learn new techniques from her later. Every one of Ranma's kicks would miss because the elder was just too fast for him to hit. After a while, the Amazon matriarch decided that she had finished toying with Ranma and went on the offensive. Within the span of a minute Ranma found himself laying on the ground with numerous bruises but still trying to get up and fight the unscathed elder's staff blows.

Cologne felt sorry for the boy because he was up against an opponent that far out-classed hi at his current skill level. She did take pride in the huge amount of potential Ranma possessed however. Cologne could have easily finished him off by knocking him unconscious a long time ago, but she felt it was unnecessary and opted for a pressure point to immobilize him to get her point across.

"Son-in-law you are a hundred years too young to face me. Remember that and know that in the future we will be working together to improve your skills tremendously." Cologne stated as she took her staff and poked a few pressure points undoing the paralysis. "So long son-in-law we will meet again" She finished as she turned to leave before Ranma had a chance to react.

(Alright what the heck just happened? I couldn't even touch her) thought Ranma bitterly, losing never sat well with him. He planned to undertake more vigorous training when he suddenly remembered what Cologne had said '… we will be working together to improve your skill…'. (That means she plans on training me and was just seeing what I still needed to learn. If that's the case then I could handle that, still it showed me that I still have a long way to go before I can truly be the best ever.)

Ranma continued walking home and felt his stomach begin to growl. "Oh man I forgot to grab lunch. Better hurry back to the dojo before pops eats my share."

But before Ranma had even taken another step the weather underwent a drastic change and opened the flood gates drenching the now red-head girl standing there.

"Aw come on! I hate this stupid curse" fumed Ranma.

Meanwhile back at Shampoo's camp where it was still sunny, Shampoo had just finished packing up her gear after discovering that her Great-grandmother was in town. Shampoo figured that her presence in Japan meant that she had taken a particular interest in what was happening to her. Figuring it was best to get some answers from the matriarch herself rather than contemplate her motives Shampoo headed to the place her Great-grandmother had set as the meeting place.

When she found the Cat-café she walked in and found her elder sitting on a stool smoking a pipe lazily.

"Did Great-grandmother meet Ranma?" Shampoo asked hopeful.

"Yes, we had a nice chat and should have another one very soon I recon." Cologne returned simply.

"Shampoo hope you no is too too rough with Ranma" Shampoo said knowing full well what a 'chat' with Cologne usually entailed.

"He'll be fine child, his pride might have been bruised but it'll heal quickly enough. And it's about time we worked on that language barrier of yours because any student of mine should learn to speak properly." Cologne said.

"Shampoo is attending school to learn already." Shampoo stated feebly.

"And you speak this poorly?" Cologne questioned skeptically then adding "Might I suggest getting private lessons soon."

"Shampoo know just who to ask when things settle down." Shampoo responded without hesitation.

"Anyway it's about time to go check up on son-in-law." Cologne said ushering them on their way to the Tendo dojo.

When they got close they heard the loud sound of a high pitched scream "Ahhhh it's hot!"

Shampoo speed up and headed to investigate the noise. What she found was Ranma's girl form rolling around in pain on the bathroom floor with Kasumi kneeling next to her trying to calm her down.

"Ranma what matter? What happened?" Shampoo asked.

"Ranma finally calmed down and pointed at the bath water and yelled "The water is boiling."

Kasumi poked her finger into the water and said "That's strange it only feels lukewarm to me."

"Sonny boy that is the power of the full body cat's tongue" Cologne said to the gathered group "The pressure points I touched earlier make you unable to stand the water necessary to change back. There is a cure, but you'll have to master a technique I teach you then you can come fight me for the cure."

"Great-grandmother that is too too cruel." yelled Shampoo furiously.

"Then help him learn it child" Cologne retorted. (Child you may hate this method but you will thank me later.)

"You old ghoul I'll get you for this" growled Ranma threateningly.

"All in good time but for now I want you to watch this" said Cologne

The elder took them outside and lit a small fire. She then took out a bag of chestnuts and threw them into the fire. She waited for a second before she started picking them out in the blink of an eye. Once she was finished, she proudly displayed her hands to the onlookers showing no burns on any part of her arms.

This made Shampoo really excited recognizing the technique and momentarily forgetting the terrible thing her Great-grandmother had done to her airen and the anger that came with it. She had been begging Cologne to learn that technique for well over a year because she had wanted to improve her speed for unarmed combat, however every time she had mentioned it Cologne had insisted that it was not yet time for her to learn it. Now it seemed she'd be able to learn it alongside Ranma.

"Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken secret Amazon Technique that increases speed, Ranma is too too lucky to learn this" said Shampoo enthusiastically.

Ranma's mood however did not get any better after hearing that and continued glaring at the elder. "Old ghoul I'll have this down in no time and then you're going to pay" he declared.

"Looking forward to it sonny boy. When you do learn it, meet me at the cat-café and don't bother coming before you've mastered the technique." Cologne stated. And with that, she pogoed away on her walking stick.

Kasumi went back inside to begin cooking dinner leaving Shampoo and Ranma alone.

"Ranma" Shampoo weakly said staring at the ground "Shampoo sorry Great-grandmother do this to you. Shampoo promise to help get cure for Ranma."

At this point Shampoo had started to cry because of the wave of emotions hitting her at once: anger at Cologne, pity for what Ranma now had to go through, and a sinking feeling that Cologne had inadvertently destroyed whatever chance she had at getting Ranma to love her.

Ranma noticed Shampoo's tears and started to panic; thinking of ways to make her stop crying. It had always been one of those things she had never learned to deal with, sending her brain into overdrive to find a solution. For once the Saotome family curse of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time didn't take affect and Ranma managed to say something the right thing for a change. "Shampoo I don't hold you responsible for any of this. My experience with subpar parenting has taught me you can't blame the mistakes of the parents on the children. Let's just learn this technique and understand just how much of a mistake she just made."

"Thank you Ranma, Shampoo is grateful you is so understanding." Shampoo stammered still fighting back tears as she grabbed Ranma in a tight hug.

This was the moment Akane walked around the corner and witnessed the scene for the first time and jumped to a quick judgment. She threw the closest large object, which happened to be a rock, at Ranma's head.

"Why don't you get a room instead of showing off your perversion to the whole world why don't you" She angrily shouted at the pair.

"I haven't done nothing you jealous tomboy, besides can't you tell she's upset instead of jumping off the deep end at the slightest thing?" Ranma quickly retorted.

Seeing that what Ranma was saying was true, Akane quickly hobbled away from the scene on her crutches to avoid further embarrassment.

Shortly after that Ranma and Shampoo parted ways as well once Shampoo and stopped crying. Both martial artists were extremely tired from the day's events and decided that it would be best to train tomorrow when they were fresh.

That night was tense in both homes. The Tendo residence felt that Ranma's predicament was unforgivable and the father's vowed to help Ranma train. They were also secretly happy that it was an opportunity for them to push Ranma and Akane together at last. Ranma refused their help stating that it would be better if they didn't help him because he already had a good training partner and old wash out martial artists and a part time martial arts wannabe wouldn't be of much help in a situation like this. This statement shocked the room into silence and Ranma just got up and left the room afterwards. In the cat-café neither Amazon even spoke to the other all night, Shampoo just stared coldly at the elder while she continued to ignore it.

The next morning, Shampoo met Ranma in the park woods where nobody would find them. She lit a fire and placed a bucket of water next to it. Placing some nuts in the fire allowed her to coach Ranma through the basics of the technique.

"All Ranma have to do is pick up nuts without burning hand…" started Shampoo when she was interrupted by Ranma's grumblings.

"I think I figured that out Shampoo." The red-head grumbled irritably.

"If Ranma no want help then Shampoo leave and Ranma be stuck in girl-type body" responded Shampoo as she pretended to leave.

"No you can't do that! I'm a guy!" Ranma shouted frantically to get Shampoo to stop.

She turned around looked at the red-head and said "Then stop being mad when Shampoo help train. Ranma learn technique and be able to grab phoenix pill from Great-grandmother."

"What did you say?" asked a curious Ranma.

"Phoenix pill is cure for full body cat tongue you have" Shampoo answered.

"Where is it?" Ranma asked hope of a cure before her.

"Great-grandmother has it. Why you no listen to what Shampoo say?" Shampoo questioned.

"Then let's go get it" Ranma cheered ignoring the question.

"No! Ranma no can take it from her till you learn Amaguriken technique." Shampoo stated grabbing Ranma by the back of the shirt to prevent her from going to try taking the pill while Ranma stood no chance of victory.

"Humph. Fine then let's get started" said Ranma.

They spent the next three hours trying to get Ranma to learn the Amaguriken, but the only thing that happened was Ranma burning her hands and dousing them in the bucket repeatedly. Shampoo also attempted to master the technique while Ranma would cool off. After the end of the session both martial artists had made progress, but were still a long way from getting all the nuts.

"Hey Shampoo I thought you already knew this technique" teased Ranma after they stopped for a break.

"Shampoo know theory only, never got to learn how till now" answered the Amazon.

Ranma's stomach chose this moment to begin rumbling signaling that it was time for lunch. They left the woods and began walking towards town in search of food when they ran into Akane at the park entrance holding up lunches.

"Kasumi asked me to bring you your lunch and to pass along her encouragement." Akane said cheerfully.

"Thanks Kasumi's cooking is great for helping me get through this training. And once I finish this I'll be one step closer to getting my cure." Ranma said practically bouncing as she grabbed the first bag and tore into its contents at lightning speed.

"Cure? Well go get now it then you big dummy." Akane said incredulously.

"Can't have to learn a new technique with Shampoo's help before I can get it" Ranma said in between his gulps of food.

"Alright out with it Shampoo just what are you trying to gain here?" Akane accused the Amazon.

"Shampoo just helping Ranma be man again" Shampoo answered. "Maybe pervert girl only like girl-type Ranma? Tell truth now."

"Who are you calling a pervert girl?" Akane asked furry growing with every word.

"Calling you" Shampoo responded simply.

"I am not!" shouted Akane who had had enough of this and left fuming at the purple haired amazon.

Hours past while Ranma and Shampoo continued training slowly progressing to the point where Ranma was only one short of grabbing all the chestnuts and Shampoo was two short. Noticing that the sun was setting the two called it a day. They parted ways to go rest up and promised to meet back here tomorrow.

On a hill outside Nermia a mysterious man vowed "Once I find you my love we will be together forever". He then walked straight into a tree that he couldn't see. Cursing he put his glasses back on and screamed "Where are you Shampoo?"

Shampoo heard the scream and had only one thought (Oh shit not him).

* * *

Author's note: I'm back this chapter took longer than I thought it would. I hope you enjoyed it. Cologne's actions here may be bad but she has her reasons which will be revealed in the next few chapters. The scene with Shampoo and Akane having this conversation after she reveals the phoenix pill is the cure has to be one of my favorites in the entire series so I had to find some way to work it into the story. Ch 8 is already on the way and should come out much quicker than this one. Till next time.


	8. A wild Mousse Appears

Remember:

_Mandarin_

(Thoughts)

* * *

Chapter 8 A Wild Mousse Appears

The next morning Ranma tried once again to grab all the chestnuts instead of participating in the usual morning sparring session with the pathetic panda. Genma actually looked relieved that Ranma was too busy to beat him up right now, and taking advantage of his new found free time, he started up yet another game of shogi with his old friend to pass the time until Kasumi had finished breakfast.

Ranma's latest attempt was a success and managed to grab all of the chestnuts; however she burned her hands and had to quickly dive into the koi pond to cool off. Once she surfaced she gave a triumphant yell that was interrupted by the sound of clapping.

"Very good sonny-boy, a little more work and you can challenge me" Cologne said appearing out of nowhere.

"Why you old ghoul come here!" Ranma screamed furiously as she jumped at the old amazon.

"Maybe some other time sonny-boy, but I've got business to do" said Cologne casually as she hopped away.

"Damn it give me that cure!" yelled Ranma furiously at the disappearing Amazon matriarch.

"Ranma breakfast is ready" called Kasumi sweetly making Ranma forget about the elderly Amazon for the time being.

Once Ranma had finished eating, she picked up her bag and left begrudgingly with Akane for school. This happened because Ranma had unwisely mentioned that she wasn't going today, and Kasumi of all people had chastised the red-head with the fact that there was no telling how long she will be in her current predicament and should not make matters worse by skipping classes. Ranma hated to admitted, but Kasumi was right and thus she was guilt-tripped into going.

Ranma however received a pleasant surprise that brightened her mood a little when Shampoo suddenly appeared leaping from a neighbor's rooftop. She landed right next to Ranma smiling.

"Nihao Ranma. Did Ranma practice this morning?" greeted Shampoo.

"Yeah I did and I actually got 'em all" boasted Ranma looking happy for the first time since the cat-tongue had occurred.

"Aiyah Ranma must show Shampoo later…"

"Shampoo what the heck are you doing here?" Akane yelled at the purple-haired Amazon.

"Walking with Ranma to school. Violent girl have problem with that?" Shampoo answered casually.

"Damn right I do! Your Great-grandmother did this to him!" Akane yelled angrily.

"Akane don't blame Shampoo for what the old ghoul does." Ranma quickly said before Akane decided to break out the mallet again.

"How can you of all people defend her!" Akane yelled incredulously. "For all you know this could be part of her scheme or something!"

"'Cause I know what it's like to put up with pop's antics getting blamed on me all the time, so I don't blame people for what their parents do!" Ranma yelled to make Akane shut up.

Akane heard this and backed down having had enough of this conversation and ran ahead of them to get to class.

"Come on Shampoo we better hurry too, or we'll be late and I'm not going to stand outside holding a bucket of water like this" said Ranma.

Shampoo didn't hear what Ranma had said and was lost in her own romantic thoughts: (Ranma is quick to defend Shampoo is very Romantic.)

Ranma could tell Shampoo was acting differently and started waving her hand in front of Shampoo's face to see if she was awake and saying "Yo Shampoo you there?"

Shampoo snapped back to reality and felt embarrassed for zoning out like that in front of Ranma and said "Shampoo fine, just deep in thought."

"Well come one we're at the gates and we better hurry before…. Aw crap too late!" The red-head shouted when she saw the horde of her male classmates gathered just inside the school grounds. The horde instantly noticed that Shampoo was not accompanied by Ranma's male form and instantly thought that this was their best shot at scoring a date with the purple-haired beauty. They also quickly noticed the red-head from the gymnastics competition the other day and tried to ask her out as well.

Shampoo made it clear she wasn't interested by smashing the first boy that tried to ask her out and promised the same to any who tried to do the same. This made them try to shift their attention to Ranma's female form, until Shampoo intervened again and fended off the males lust-filled advances with her chui much to the relief of Ranma.

"Thanks Shampoo that always creeps me out when guys try to hit on me." Ranma said shuddering at the unpleasant thoughts.

"Ranma is Shampoo's friend. Ranma can always count on Shampoo." The Amazon explained happily.

Once in the classroom the teacher began to take role by calling out each name to make sure he didn't make a mistake and count a student present if they weren't actually in class. Everything progressed in its usual monotonous pace until the teacher called for Ranma Saotome. To everybody's surprise, it was the red-haired student that had walked in with Shampoo who replied "here" causing every head to turn in her direction.

"Miss, how can you possibly be Ranma Saotome?" The teacher asked skeptically trying to see if the poor girl in front of him was delusional and should be referred to the nurse immediately to have her head examined.

"It's truth sir, Ranma have curse that do this" Shampoo tried to explain while keeping the details secret for Ranma's sake.

"Fine if you two insist on playing this game then I have no choice but to move on so you don't fall behind in your studies and Ranma will have to pass every quiz we take tomorrow understood." The teacher said trying to make a threat but not really having the guts to actually say it for fear of upsetting the martial artists in the room.

"Yes sir" the red-head replied not really caring about a word the man had said.

Nothing interesting happened until the bell rang for lunch break. Akane was still made at the Amazon for the cat-tongue and she went to go eat with her school friends so as to avoid the Amazon altogether. Ranma on the other hand went to the usual eating spot over by the tree and sat down to eat when she realized that she forgot her lunch today.

"Aw man I forgot my lunch this morning." Ranma complained.

"That okay, Shampoo brought extra food from Cat-Café." Shampoo said while pulling out a surprisingly large amount of food from her bag.

"Cat-Café? What's that?" Asked Ranma.

"Great-Grandma just open it the other day, and Shampoo leave in room above restaurant. Come by some time and Shampoo give you free food." Shampoo answered.

"Watch it I may put you outta business" joked Ranma.

Both martial artists laughed for a while and ate the nice meal in apparent peace. Ranma was thoroughly enjoying it, and finished the food a little slower than he normally would have, mostly because the panda wasn't there to eat Ranma's portion.

"Hey Shampoo, since you stay there would you know who cooked this?" Ranma asked curiously.

Shampoo looked at Ranma for a second trying to figure out why the red-head had asked and finally gave in and answered, "Shampoo did, why you ask?"

"Wow now I'm impressed, you're just as good as Kasumi's cooking." Ranma complemented.

"Shampoo happy you enjoy meal." Shampoo said beaming.

The bell rang at that moment signaling everyone to return to class. The mass of students didn't move because a man with long black hair and wearing long white robes had jumped in front of them blocking the door. Immediately he ran and hugged Ranma saying "Oh my darling Shampoo I've finally found you."

Ranma kneed the guy right in the gut making him keel over. "Get your eyes checked stupid I ain't Shampoo."

Staggering back onto his feet, Mousse put his thick glasses on and yelled "Who the hell are you?"

"I could ask you the same stupid." Ranma retorted.

"The name's Mousse now where has my Shampoo gone? I know she was here." Mousse demanded.

"Shampoo right here stupid, now go home Shampoo no want to see you." Shampoo responded angrily.

"But Shampoo how can you deny my love?" Mousse asked incredulously.

"Easy, Shampoo no love stupid blind boy. Now go home Mousse." Shampoo commanded.

Ranma was watching this conversation and not really understanding any of it, so she decided to ask for some quick clarification. "Hey Shampoo how exactly do you know this guy?"

"He from Shampoo's village and he never stops annoying me." Shampoo answered quickly.

"But Shampoo that's not fair we've been friends since we could walk and I've come to rescue you." Mousse stammered hurt by her accusation.

"Shampoo no need rescue stupid, Shampoo fine." Shampoo stated dismissively.

"Then what's the talk around the village about you being forced to give the kiss of marriage?" Mousse said pain evident in his voice now.

"Shampoo did that willingly to Ranma. Why can't Mousse take hint and leave?"

"You have obviously been brain-washed by that old dried up monkey again. Have no fear I'll deal with this Ranma, now where is he." Mousse reasoned.

All Shampoo could do at this point was give herself a massive facepalm and shake her head at Mousse's delusions. At the same time Ranma blurted out "I'm right here you blind idiot."

"That can't be right you're a girl." Mousse said confused.

"I'm a guy! Ever heard of Jusenkyo?" Ranma yelled angrily.

"Oh so you're just a pervert then. No way is this 'guy' good enough for you my love. Therefore I challenge you and the winner gets Shampoo." Mousse proclaimed.

"Fine you're on. 3:00 meet in that field." Ranma answered pointing towards the school playing field.

"Done, now get ready to die." Mousse boasted as he left to go pass the time until the match.

Once Mousse was out of sight, Shampoo turned to Ranma and whispered, "Be careful Mousse is master at hidden weapons. Ranma win yes? Shampoo no want to be with Mousse."

"Hey don't worry, I'm Ranma Saotome and I never lose." Ranma showing more confidence than the red-head had shown since being trapped in her curse form.

Back in class, the teacher tried to restore order, but failed to do so and eventually he just gave up and left for the break room in order to save the last of his sanity. The students took advantage of this and continued to discuss the latest gossip. Somehow Nabiki had sold information regarding Ranma's Jusenkyo curse and that information spread like wildfire throughout the school. Kuno was the only person in the entire school that refused to believe the news and had instead decided that the villainous Saotome had enslaved is pig-tailed goddess. Naiki sighed in exasperation after trying for the third time to explain it to him. She had always known that Kuno wasn't the brightest kid around, but he had just sunk to a new level of stupidity that hadn't existed before. She left the rich idiot alone so that she could focus on setting up the betting pool for the upcoming fight.

Three o'clock rolled around and signaled the end of classes. Normally this would have meant that all the students were fleeing the school grounds as quickly as possible to go have fun with their friends, but today instead everybody headed towards the field to watch the spectacle. Mousse stood there in the middle of the field impatiently waiting for Ranma to show. He was determined that he would pummel the red-head senseless in order to prove his worthiness to his purple-haired love interest.

When Ranma finally did show up a few minutes later, Mousse couldn't contain his impatience any longer and yelled out, "About time you got here Saotome, I was beginning to think you wouldn't show."

"I never back away from a challenge; I just took my time getting here. No sense rushing out just to beat you up." Ranma taunted.

"How dare you take me lightly! When I humiliate you Shampoo will be all mine!" Mousse proclaimed loudly for all to hear.

"Listen jerk, neither of us has the right to claim her like some kinda property. She has every right to choose what she damn well pleases." Ranma retorted just as loud.

Mousse finally snapped and started the fight by throwing an assortment of chains from his sleeves. Ranma had no trouble dodging the chains because of the flexibility of her cursed form. Mousse realized this attack wasn't working and started throwing knives. These were even easier for Ranma to dodge because Mousse could only throw a few at a time.

The continued barrage got nowhere making Mousse even more frustrated. When the twentieth knife had embedded it's blade into the ground and Ranma had yet to be scratched, Mousse screamed in frustration. "Damn you, stand still and fight me!"

"Aw what's the matter can't hit a simple target?" Ranma taunted enraging Mousse even more.

"Argh that's enough out of you!" Mousse shouted as he pulled out blades from his robes for each of his arms. Blinded by his anger he charged straight at Ranma swinging wildly. The first went way over Ranma's head due to the shorter build of Ranma's girl body. The second strike was aimed much better, but only managed to slash the front of her red shirt exposing her chest.

Before he could get in another strike however, Ranma kicked Mouse in the stomach causing him to stagger back in order to catch his breath. Ranma seized upon the opportunity and attacked full out with every intention to end the fight now before the Amazon got any further out of control. Ranma succeeded in getting close enough to strike and decided to unleash the new technique she'd just learned.

With blinding speed, Ranma's fists punched the same spot continuously for five seconds. In that short amount of time however Ranma had landed over nine hundred punches using the Amaguriken speed. Once Ranma had stopped Mousse slumped over and fell to the ground unconscious.

The crowed stood there stunned, trying to figure out how Ranma had beaten Mousse so easily. Shampoo was the only one that moved and she immediately rushed out to embrace Ranma joyfully.

"Ranma you won. Shampoo knew you could do it. Mousse never stood chance." Shampoo said happily.

"Thanks Shampoo that new move you helped teach was what did it." Ranma replied.

"You is ready to get cure now, but Great-grandmother make you fight for it. Be much tougher than Mousse." Shampoo warned.

"Ranma Saotome never backs away from a challenge." Ranma boasted before turning to look at the crowed coming in closer every second. "Hey Shampoo why are they all staring at me?"

Shampoo and Ranma both looked down at the same time and noticed Ranma now very visible bust.

"Aw crap. I hate this stupid curse." Ranma complained to no one in particular.

"Come on Ranma we have to get outta here." Shampoo said hurriedly as she pulled out her chui as a precaution.

Mousse began to stir and that was more than enough reason to flee the scene if the horde of lust crazed boys wasn't enough. Shampoo smacked Mousse on the head to ensure that he stayed out of commission for a long time, and for the satisfying feeling it gave her. She then grabbed Ranma by the arm and led the red-head to a safe place they could talk. The escape was fairly easy because of their lack of cognitive functions, thus allowing the martial artists to step on the crowds' heads and hope the fence without any trouble.

They quickly made their way across the rooftops towards the newly established Cat-Café. Once they had arrived, they quickly made their way up the stairs and into Shampoo's room. As a precaution Shampoo locked the door making Cologne very curious as to what the teens were up to, Shampoo hardly ever locked her door.

"Shampoo what's going on? It's not like you to lock your door." The matriarch asked curiously.

"_It's Mousse. He finally found out I'm here."_ Shampoosaid switching to mandarin

"_Child it'll be fine, I know you can handle it without any trouble._" The elder said reassuringly.

"_I know, but he refuses to see reason and I just need time to come up with a plan to get him to leave_." Shampoo said in an attempt to clarify the situation without divulging any details.

"_Very well child, and do say hello to son-in-law for me since I know you're not alone in there_." Cologne answered as the elder turned to leave.

"Yes Great-grandmother" Shampoo responded simply, as she then turned to face a confused Ranma while the sound of Colognes staff faded away. "Shampoo get sewing kit and explain what just happen when back okay."

That was enough to satisfy Ranma for the time being, and she waited patiently for Shampoo's return. When she returned moments later she had not only the sewing kit with her, but two bowels of Ramen as well.

"Shampoo thought Ranma hungry so brought too too delicious Ramen." Shampoo said answering the unspoken question.

"Thanks Shampoo" said Ranma who wasted no time in digging into the food.

Shampoo pulled out the necessary supplies from the kit and began to repair Ranma's shirt. While she worked she took the opportunity to explain the whole Mousse situation in great detail to Ranma despite her occasional mistakes from just a month's study of Japanese. She spent the next hour explaining how Mousse went from being a nice childhood friend to obsessed stalker.

"So let me get this straight" Ranma said after she had finished, "Mousse has tried to date you since you were both five and still hasn't figured out you're not interested."

"That exactly what Shampoo is saying. Mousse is stubborn idiot and will probably be after your head now he thinks you 'manipulated Shampoo'." Shampoo pointed out as she handed Ranma back the repaired shirt.

"Thanks for the warning then, but I care more about getting that phoenix pill first, then we can deal with him." Ranma said trying to switch topics.

"Ranma you is ready to face Great-grandmother, I'll get it set up so for tomorrow morning. So until then, good luck." Shampoo said as Ranma left via the window.

What the two martial artists didn't know was that Cologne had actually been listening in on the whole conversation with a special meditation technique that temporarily improved her hearing. While under this technique she was able to listen in on anything she wanted two with in a two block radius. After the future son-in-law had left, she stopped the meditation and said to herself, "Well part of the plan has worked so far, but the second part still needs a little more work before it succeeds."

* * *

Author's note: Sorry for the long delay between this chapter and my last one. I've been dealing with a rather nasty computer virus that put my computer out of commision for the last few weeks, but it's finnally been taken care of. Hope you enjoyed it. And next time the long awaited match for the phoenix pill.


	9. The Phoenix Pill

Chapter 9 The Phoenix Pill

* * *

The previous night had seen Ranma walk in very late in order for Mousse to not see where Shampoo was staying. This had the result of making the fathers upset, though that was mostly because the red-head was not spending any time with Akane more than anything. Ranma's response was simple, "Why should I have to spend my afternoons babysitting a jealous tomboy."

Souns cried when he heard this, and Genma tried to punish her rude behavior by telling her that there was no food let after dinner for her. This backfired spectaualy when Kasumi piped up from the kitchen "Mr. Saotome that's not true at all. Ranma's portion is actually still on the stove."

"Thanks Kasumi, you're a life saver." Ranma called back while giving Genma a look of smug satisfaction that he was wrong yet again.

And when Ranma woke up early that morning, she quietly made her way back down to the kitchen for breakfast. Not surprisingly Kasumi was already up and had already prepared breakfast for Ranma.

"Why hello Ranma, I heard about your success and figured you'd be heading out early today so I took the liberty of preparing breakfast for you already." Kasumi greeted.

"You're the best Kasumi." Ranma called back as she dug into the prepared meal.

Kasumi didn't stay around long as she left to go take care of other choirs. Ranma hurriedly finished the food even by her usual standards and took off for the cat-café. She used the roof tops to ensure that nothing would slow her down when her cure was within sight. Arriving at the café she was pleasantly surprised to find the two Amazons already outside waiting for her.

Ranma could see that Shampoo was barely controlling herself as the excitement and anticipation of what was about to take place started building. Cologne was the exact opposite as the elder was showing an unusual amount of calmness as far as Ranma was concerned. As soon as he set foot on the yard, she found herself being glomped by the purple-haired Amazon.

"Nihao Ranma" Shampoo enthusiastically called out while not making any effort to release her new hostage.

"Shampoo… need… air" Ranma gasped causing Shampoo to promptly release her grip and look slightly embarrassed by her lack of self-control.

"So Sonny boy you think you finally have what it takes to win you cure" Cologne said to keep her great granddaughter from making another embarrassing move in front of Ranma, as well as giving her soon to be opponent a chance to catch her breath.

"You bet old ghoul. When I'm finished you'll wish you never messed with Ranma Saotome." Ranma fired back defiantly.

"Then let's test that shall we. I have here in this necklace the Phoenix pill, the cure for that full body cat-tongue you have. All you have to do is take it from me." Cologne taunted Ranma by dangling the necklace in front of Ranma.

"Ha this'll be easy!" Ranma shouted full of the usual confidence the she had taken into every fight she had ever fought.

"Don't underestimate me son-in-law, I've forgotten more martial arts skills than you and Shampoo have learned combined" cautioned Cologne.

"Whatever ya say old ghoul, let's just get this thing started already so I can be a guy again." Ranma impatiently replied.

"Alright then, Shampoo if you would the honors?" Cologne asked politely.

"Rules are simple, anything goes, but no can leave cat-café grounds okay." Shampoo explained as she took a moment's pause to make sure the combatants understood. Once she was satisfied, she started the fight by yelling "Begin!"

Immediately Ranma charged in letting her frustration that had built up over the past several days vent with each blow directed at the elder. This was a mistake on her part because the blows were sloppy in form and left large areas of her body vulnerable to a counter attack. Cologne noticed this, but had to bid her time before she could make her move due to the ferocity of the red-head's attacks making up for the poor technique she was using.

Then without warning Cologne jumped high into the air instead of blocking Ranma's attack. The sudden change had caught off balance and had to dive to the side in order to avoid the matriarch's attack. Scolding herself for being so careless, Ranma tried to think up a real strategy to win.

The elder gave her opponent little time to think as she wasted no time in pressing her advantage her patience had awarded her. She used the Amiguriken speed technique with her staff to try and penetrate Ranma's defenses. Ranma's training had paid off because she was now able to discern the speed and location of each attack then move her arms into position to block the blow.

Shampoo watched the battle intently trying to learn anything that might be useful for her to add to her skill set. The practice had been beaten into her subconscious by her Amazon training to the point where it was second nature for her to do so at any fight she witnessed. This fight was showing her some of the many other uses for the Amigurikan that she had forgotten about. (Shampoo had forgotten Amiguriken helps speed up the ability to identify where your opponent is going to strike. Shampoo going to have to practice that at next spare with Ranma.) She thought eagerly.

Ranma heard a voice inside his head that sound like Shampoo tell him "Ranma use the Amiguriken to attack great-grandmother in multiple places at once." Ranma realized that a straight up frontal assault would never work and he was going to have to get creative with his attacks in order to win. With a plan in mind, she rolled out of the way of the elder's attacks and jumped up onto the wall. Ranma taunted Cologne into joining her up on top of the wall separating the cat-café grounds from her neighbors.

Each combatant unleashed a furious barrage of blows at the other at blinding speed for approximately a minute. During this time Ranma made sure to attack from multiple angles in order to disguise her true intentions. At the end of the barrage Ranma made an attempt to grab Cologne's staff and wrench it out of her hands. Cologne was not going to let Ranma take her staff from her and tightened her grip. Ranma then let go and grinned triumphantly. In her hands was a chain holding a large container.

Shampoo instantly noticed that Ranma had managed to grab the pendant that contained the Phoenix pill and cheered "Ranma you did it now you can be free of full body cat tongue!"

"That was quite impressive son-in-law." Cologne admitted.

"Told ya I'd win old ghoul!" Ranma boasted triumphantly as she opened the container and removed a small dark brown ball. The red-head quickly popped it into her mouth and swallowed. "That's funny, it tastes just like chocolate."

"That's because it is chocolate." Cologne explained.

"Great-grandmother that not nice" Shampoo protested.

"Give me the real pill!" Ranma demanded.

"Soon enough sonny boy, but I've spent too much time here already and I have to attend to my business." Cologne said dismissively and walked away.

"Damnit give me that pill" Ranma demanded of the matriarch who gave no indication she heard it.

"Ranma wait here Shampoo be back in a minute." The purple haired Amazon said as she dashed into the Cat-café's back door.

"Fine whatever." Ranma replied irritably to the disappearing girl.

Shampoo didn't hear this as she was already inside and had darted up the stairs as fast as she could straight to her elder's room. Not pausing to see if it was unlocked, she pulled out her chui and in one swift motion smashed the door down as she was pulling it out. (_What was Cologne thinking not honoring deal with Ranma like that? It makes all Amazons dishonored when stuff like this happens, as a village elder let alone the matriarch she should know better than this. So now it's up to me to give Ranma what he earned.) _thought the Amazon as she tore the room apart in her search.

After a minutes search she found what she was looking for and double checked it in order to verify the pills authenticity. Upon confirmation that it truly was what she sought, Shampoo opened the window and leaped through it and into the backyard. She performed a summersault and landed right next to Ranma who had lost the irritated look from earlier and was now curious as to what Shampoo had just done having heard the sounds of a door being smashed in as well as someone rummaging through everything in the room Shampoo had just jumped out of.

"Ranma, Shampoo got something for you" The purple haired girl sang cheerfully.

"What ya grab Shampoo? Is it the Phoenix pill?" asked Ranma hopefully.

Shampoo just answered with an enthusiastic nod of her head and then showed the bright blue pill to Ranma.

"Shampoo, how can I ever repay you?" Ranma asked.

"Take Shampoo to dinner and we call it even yes?" Shampoo offered.

"Ya sure no problem." Ranma answered not really paying attention to what she had just agreed to due to her excitement over finally getting her cure.

Ranma took the pill and swallowed it, then without warning kissed Shampoo full on the lips. Too shocked to grasp what had just happened, Shampoo just enjoyed the feeling of Ranma's lips. Soon after it began, Ranma's brain started kick into overdrive and made the red-head realize what was happening. This caused her to stop what she was doing and back away quickly.

"Uh Shampoo let's not mention that this ever happened." Ranma quietly said obviously embarrassed by what had happened and didn't wait for an answer before fleeing the scene as quickly as possible.

Shampoo didn't hear any of what Ranma had just said because she was still in a daze from the kiss. Only after Ranma was long gone did she finally manage to bring herself back to reality. Cologne in the meantime had listened to the whole incident from her hidden advantage point inside the cat-café and the use of her most powerful meditation techniques. The matriarch had lied when she claimed there were customers she needed to prepare for as the restaurant didn't open for another hour.

"Good so far everything has worked out mostly the way I wanted. Guess that means it's time to explain my actions and hope that the results are as good as they seem to indicate." Cologne said to herself.

At lunch when the cat-café was closed, Cologne decided to start the process to heal the relationship she had with her great-granddaughter. The matriarch had noticed Shampoo was still upset about the phoenix pill incident, while at the same time trying to hide the fact that the final interaction with Ranma had left her the happiest woman in all of Japan.

"Shampoo would you mind going to get Ranma and bring him here? There are things that the three of us need to discuss." Cologne politely asked.

Shampoo looked skeptical but agreed and headed straight to the Tendo Dojo wordlessly. Once she arrived she hopped up to the window outside Ranma's room and knocked. Ranma had just walked in to the room and was obviously still damp from the five hot bath he had taken since arriving back at the dojo. A now surprised Ranma walked over to the window and opened it for Shampoo to come in. Shampoo didn't come in and just motioned for him to be quiet.

"Ranma come to restraint we need to talk away from mercenary girl's ears." Shampoo said as she started the journey back to the cat-café, and Ranma quietly followed her and made sure to close the window behind him.

Nabiki with her newly installed listening devices had picked up everything that was said in Ranma's room and quickly called an 'associate' to get ears on the cat-café. She knew something was up once Ranma came home cured but suspiciously dodged all questions about how he did it.

Ranma arrived at the cat-café without any trouble and immediately started taunting Cologne, "Hey old ghoul, what's so important you have to call me back so soon, did ya miss me or something."

After a whack to the head with her staff, Cologne regained her composure and motioned for the two teens to sit down at the nearest table. "I feel as if I owe the two of you an explanation for the past few days and why I did what I did." Cologne started to explain, "None of this was meant to be a punishment of some kind Ranma, only a learning experience. The cat-tongue was meant to give me an opportunity to demonstrate to you my ability to teach you new techniques and a way to demonstrate your mastery of the technique. It was also a chance to give you two the much needed push to finally see what's right in front of you. Truthfully both of you have more potential as martial artists than I have seen in my entire life, and together you can become the greatest provided you have the right instructor. I've also noticed the feelings that the two of you share for each other and honestly it's about time you noticed as well."

"So you're saying that you did this to teach me new moves and show that I got feelings for Shampoo?" Ranma questioned.

"That's a very simple way of saying it, but yes." Cologne answered casually.

"Don't take offense to this but I don't believe you." Ranma countered.

"Fine, but don't be so hasty to make a snap judgment about this. How about this, you think about what I've said and come back later this week to answer if I was right." Cologne offered.

Ranma had had enough and left the restaurant without any hesitation, and once he was finally gone Cologne turned to Shampoo and said, "I told you I had a plan to get Ranma to open his eyes to what's in front of him."

Shampoo suddenly remembered their conversation back in the vacant lot and responded, "But great-grandmother that was too too risky, it almost failed."

"True, but this was the fastest and most fun way for me to do everything I wanted to." Cologne admitted.

"Why did you not give Ranma the real pill after fight?" Shampoo asked.

"Because you my child weren't being obvious enough for him to notice, so I played on the fact that you'd get the pill for him so he'd see for himself what a wonderful person has fallen for him." Cologne explained, "Now we have a long week ahead of us and we have a restaurant to run."

"Yes great-grandmother." Shampoo answered anxious to see what the next day would bring.


	10. So Much For Secrecy

Author's note: it's been a long time since my last update but I haven't abandoned this story just took some time off in order to figure out how I want to progress the rest of the story. I decided to make a format change; thoughts will now be noted by 'thoughts'. As always any Mandarin will be written like _Mandarin_.

* * *

Chapter 10 So Much for Secrecy

Early the next morning the report from Nabiki's spy came in and the news wasn't good for Nabiki's plans.

'Damnit this is going to ruin all of my plans. That idiot Ranma clearly has feelings for that Chinese girl even if he doesn't realize it yet. We have to get Akane to start caring or else daddy is going to completely lose it.' Nabiki thought as she was walking through the streets of Nermia trying to come up with a new plan of attack. Then, she stumbled upon a campsite, and recognizing the camper because of his long black hair and giant white robes came up with a new devious plan.

"Hey Mousse, I got something you might be interested in." Nabiki called out to the Chinese master of hidden weapons.

Mousse head the voice and abandoned both his breakfast still cooking over the fire and his glasses and ran towards the voice crying "Oh Shampoo you've come back to me!". He then grabbed Nabiki in a tight hug.

"Uh not quite" said Nabiki inwardly chuckling about how easy this was going to be.

It then occurred to Mousse that this wasn't Shampoo he was holding, so he produced his extra glasses, put them one and released the new girl. He took a quick look at the stranger in front of him and he hastily retreated looking for his overly thick glasses. Once the glasses were back on his face he asked "Who are you and how do you know me?"

"The name's Nabiki Tendo and I know everything that goes on in this town, but my information has a price."

"What could you possibly know that would interest me?" Mousse asked impatiently.

"Well it concerns a certain Chinese Amazon Warrior and a Ranma Saotome…" Nabiki began to say in order to draw the necessary interest for her plan.

"Now you have my interest do tell me what that foul Saotome has done to my darling Shampoo." Mousse shouted at her taking the bait.

"Well normally I'd charge for this information, but I'm willing to give you this one for free." Nabiki said smugly.

"What's the catch?" Mousse asked immediately not believing that there wasn't a price.

"My, aren't you a smart one? The catch is that at a later time you'll have to do something for me. Consider it as a favor that you'll owe me." Nabiki replied impressed that the Chinese boy had caught on to her typical habits so quickly.

"Fair enough now spill." Mousse answered impatiently.

"Reliable sources have confirmed that Ranma and Shampoo have kissed and plan more such encounters." Nabiki said flatly.

"Damn that Ranma! Shampoo's first kiss was to be mine!" Mousse yelled furiously as he ran off into the Nermia streets looking for Ranma and abandoning his now burnt breakfast.

"Well that worked out well, I just have to go find another 'scorned lover' to add to the list of clients" laughed Nabiki as she headed towards the Kuno estate.

Back at the Tendo dojo, Ranma was walking towards the training hall. When he had walked into the room to go through his warm up Katas he saw Akane already doing hers and he immediately started trying to explain to her about how terrible her form was and how it was as terrible as her cooking tasted.

"What's wrong with my cooking?" Akane yelled her anger rising.

"Have you ever tried it?" Ranma asked incredulously "It kills anybody that so much as tastes it."

"Ranma I'll kill you!" Akane screeched as she grabbed her mallet from the wall and began chasing Ranma throughout the house. Eventually, the chase came into the living room where Ranma narrowly missed colliding into Kasumi, who was busy cleaning the table, and tripped over the fat panda playing go with Soun. This was enough time to allow Akane to catch up and smash Ranma through the door into the backyard. He managed to land gracefully on the rocks surrounding the Koi Pond and looked closely at the water thankful that he didn't fall in. That moment of peace didn't last long has almost immediately after he landed the sound of a bicycle bell rang through the air followed by a bike jumping over the wall and landing on top of Ranma.

"Nihao! Where is Ranma? Shampoo need to talk with him." Shampoo greeted as soon as she had made her entrance.

"Down here" Ranma said painfully.

"Aiyah Shampoo so sorry. No see you there." Shampoo said as she hurried to get off of her poor airen. "Shampoo need to tell you something that's for Ranma's ears only."

"Alright, then let's go someplace where the others can't hear." Ranma suggested.

Akane tired of being ignored by Ranma finally let loose her tirade as she made her way next to the pair of martial artists standing in the backyard. "Ranma don't you dare leave, I'm not finished with you!"

"Listen to your fiancé Ranma my boy" chimed in Genma finally having gotten some hot water to change with.

"Why should I listen to a tomboy too stupid to listen to some advice on how to fix her form?" Ranma fired back at Genma.

"Why Ranma bother? It obvious Akane want to be a terrible martial artist" Shampoo chipped in.

"That's it Shampoo I've had enough out of you!" Akane yelled unable to tolerate any more defamation of her character, "I challenge you Shampoo".

"Shampoo beat you with only one hand." Shampoo boasted, but was denied an opportunity to back up her boast when a knife whizzed by and stuck into the wall.

Everybody gathered in the Tendo's backyard immediately dropped into a defensive stance. Shampoo held her chúi, one above her head and the other off to the side so she could block any incoming attack and launch an immediate counter. Ranma and Akane matched stances in the basic Anything Goes technique. Akane however didn't stay in that stance long once the mysterious attacker was discovered to be none other than Mousse.

"What do you want Mousse? Did you come back for another beating?" Ranma asked the robed Chinese boy.

"Ranma! How dare you kiss my Shampoo! I'll kill you!" Mousse shouted at the backyard gathering.

Ranma was never given an opportunity to respond before Akane, Genma and Soun blurted out "He did what?"

Ranma just stood there struggling for words to say, and stopped trying to talk when he felt the withering gazes of the entire Tendo household minus Kasumi, who was baking snacks in the kitchen singing merrily to herself blissfully unaware of the chaos unfolding in the backyard.

Shampoo on the other hand casually walked up to Mousse and smashed his face into the ground with her Chui. "Who told you Mousse?" Shampoo asked threateningly as she readied another strike.

"Some girl named Nabiki. That's all I know I swear just don't hit me any more Shampoo." Mousse confessed.

"Ohohohoh I see I'm late to the party" interrupted Kodachi as she landed in the now crowded backyard.

"Oh great this just keeps getting better and better" Ranma sarcastically said.

"Indeed it does Ranma darling your Black Rose has come to free you from this harlot's seductions" Kodachi pompously declared.

"Shampoo no seduce Ranma stupid Ribbon girl" Shampoo fired back at the Black Rose.

"How dare you lie to a member of the Noble House of Kuno!" Kodachi exclaimed stunned at the insolence of those in the Tendo's backyard. "For this injustice I shall have to duel you and the winner gets to keep their right to pursue Ranma darling."

"Shampoo beat you easily" Shampoo purred.

"Akane you have to win this for our Family's honor" Soun said eagerly trying to get Akane to take seriously the threats to her engagement to Ranma.

"Shut up Dad, I don't care much for what happens to this jerk" Akane angrily shouted while pointing at Ranma who stuck his tongue out at her in response.

"But Akane…"

"I said no Dad, besides you never asked how I felt about this arrangement before you engaged us." Akane interrupted with a tone that let Soun know to drop the subject.

Changing the subject Kodachi suggested that they move to a different location and the rest of the interested parties agreed to a change in scenery.

Ranma was not feeling comfortable with the looks he was receiving from the group and tried to sneak off while the rest of the gang headed towards the park. He was planning on watching the event but out of sight from the rest of the group. He was unsuccessful because he was jumped by the fathers and Mousse, who then proceeded to tie him up and drag him to the duel. Mousse was hoping that this was going to lead to what he thought would be a suitable punishment for his now archrival kissing his girl.

"We will be talking about this later boy" Genma fumed loud enough for only Ranma to hear.

Ranma was unable to give his retort when the fight between the girls began with their respective Battle Cries. Kodachi was armed with her usual ribbon, while Shampoo had changed her arsenal slightly and was now wielding a chui in her left hand while the right was armed with a sword.

Shampoo adopted an extremely aggressive strategy clearly intent on ending this fight quickly and leaving her opponent humiliated. She was inside of Kodachi's defenses before Kodachi had an opportunity to react. She dodged the only ribbon strike sent her way and swung her chui at Kodachi's head. Kodachi was forced to block the chui with her ribbon. Instead of the ribbon staying stiff, it wrapped itself the chui and gave Shampoo an opening. The amazon warrior wasted no time in exploiting that opening and used her sword to slice the ribbon into tiny pieces too small to do anything with except make it into confetti.

Kodachi then watched in disbelief as Shampoo then turned and connected her foot with the gymnast's face. The force of the kick was enough to knock out her unfortunate opponent instantly. The purple haired Amazon looked over to ensure that her opponent was truly down for the count and walked over to where Ranma was tied up. She effortlessly cut him free from his bonds looking at the people who had tied up her friend with anger.

Ranma made a mental note to not make Shampoo angry as he found himself suddenly free of the bounds that had been placed around him.


	11. Past meets Present

Chapter 11 Past Meets Present

Author's notes will be at the end of the chapter this time.

The next morning Genma Saotome found himself feeling an extreme sense of dread. This troubled him because he couldn't figure out why he felt this way. He was confident that yesterday's events had squashed the boy's foolish thoughts about that Chinese bimbo and finally understand his honor bound duty to marry Akane. Yet this was the only thing that he could think would be able to trouble him like this.

'Soun and I need to move quickly and get our children married to each other so we can grow old in comfort.'

At the same time in downtown Nermia, a traveler was heading towards Furinkan High School where it was rumored that Ranma Saotome was a student. The traveler had been searching for him since he had disappeared with his no good father years ago, and the time had come to enact revenge.

Back at the Tendo house, Ranma was blissfully unaware of what awaited him at school today, but that didn't mean he was happy. As part of his 'punishment' for kissing Shampoo, Akane had convinced the family to let her cook all of Ranma's meals for the week. Ranma was just beginning to understand that this sentence was his own private hell on Earth as soon as he took his first bite of Akane's cooking. He immediately spat it back out afraid that he had just tried to swallow poison.

"What the hell are you trying to do? Kill me?" Ranma choked out between gasps of air.

"Ranma you ungrateful jerk, I worked really hard on this" Akane fumed.

"Well whatever you're doing isn't working because this stuff is inedible." Ranma retorted having regained his ability to breathe properly.

Smash.

Akane had sent Ranma flying through the roof using her giant mallet. Luckily for the pigtailed martial artist he landed on his feet in front of the cat-café.

"Nihao Ranma, it a bit early to be visiting Shampoo no?" Shampoo greeted from the upstairs window having witnessed his graceful landing.

"Yeah but I managed to get a ride thanks to Air Akane." Ranma laughed at his good luck to land at a place where he could eat an actual meal.

"Ranma didn't get breakfast?" Shampoo asked curiously.

"Not when Akane the kitchen destroyer decides to cook." Ranma jokingly informed his Chinese savior.

"Aiyah! She that bad a cook!? Come in and Shampoo fix you breakfast." Shampoo said as she disappeared into the house.

"Sounds good to me" Ranma said chuckling to himself.

Shampoo quickly put together a bowl of her specialty Ramen, and listened to Ranma's tale of Akane's terrible cooking skills. What his story lacked was how Akane had prepared the food in the first place making Shampoo guess it was because Akane didn't know anything about cooking and just made things up as she went.

Once Ranma had finished his third bowl of Ramen the two Martial Artists realized that it was time to head to school and hurriedly grabbed their things and left the Cat-café. Along the way they had to be careful to avoid the old lady that threw water from her bucket onto the street for no apparent reason because Shampoo didn't want to have to use up her supply of hot water to change Ranma back into a male so early in the day.

They managed to make it to the school without incident, but found themselves face-to-face with a stranger as soon as they had arrived at the school gates. This stranger was dressed in a blue boy's school uniform and had a giant spatula strapped on the back of the uniform.

"So we meet again Ranma Saotome" The stranger said venomously.

Ranma didn't say anything while he tried to figure out who this person was that seemed to know him. Ranma kept staring trying to find something to jog his memory. Then he noticed the faint smell of okonomiaki coming from the stranger's clothes.

"Hey you're okonomiaki Uchan! How's it been? I haven't seen you since we were kids." Ranma excitedly said, happy that one of his old childhood friends had showed up.

"You jerk don't you even remember leaving me behind when you left? Ukyo shouted seething with anger.

"Hey why are you mad about that? Pops told me you didn't want to come with us. Why is that even an issue?" Ranma responded confused.

Shampoo just stood there observing the strange scene unfolding before her, trying to find some way to make sense of what was happening. She was saved the trouble when the bell rang for class to begin, prompting all the people still in the school yard to scatter towards their respective classes. In the scramble to not be late the three teenagers involved in the earlier scene lost track of each other and each made their way towards their classroom. The separation was short lived as each Teenager was heading towards the same classroom.

Once everything had calmed down, the teacher started the introduction for their new student. "Class we have a new student today, allow me to introduce to you Ukyo Kuonji."

Ukyo got up waved hello and proceeded to pass out freshly cooked Okonomiaki to everyone in the class except for Ranma of course. Instead, the pigtailed martial artist received a note issuing a challenge that read "Come to the field right after school so we can finally settle this – Ukyo."

'Come on what is this guy's problem? So pops and I left without a proper goodbye, but there's no reason to carry a grudge over that.' Ranma thought not understanding the problem with his childhood friend.

That school day progressed at a snail's pace for Ranma who paid little attention to the lessons and instead was working on trying to figure out what Ukyo was upset about. Shampoo could sense Ranma's agitation and was beginning to become agitated herself that Ranma wasn't talking to her about it.

'_What has Ranma so worked up? He usually talks to me when he's not sleeping that is.' _Shampoo thought unable to pay the teacher any attention as she focused all of her attention on her friend's behavior. Unable to contain it any longer the Amazon poked Ranma in the side to get his attention and whispered "Ranma what's wrong?"

"Look at this" Ranma answered in a hushed tone trying not to gain unwanted attention. He passed Shampoo the note and added "Uchan is mad at me for something, but I can't figure out what it could possibly be."

"Do you remember how you left, cause from what Shampoo understand that is what seems to be the issue." She asked trying to help get Ranma the answer he was seeking.

"Well Pops and I were heading out of town to head to a new training site. I was sitting on top of some cart and waving good bye to Uchan. For some reason Uchan was crying and running after us" recalled Ranma.

"Panda didn't steal that cart did he?" Shampoo asked starting to understand the whole issue.

"Oh crap that maybe it." Ranma replied understanding what Shampoo was hinting at. "That cart must have been their family cart and Pops took it."

"There more to story than Ranma know, should try and beat answer out of that fat panda" Shampoo suggested.

"You're right but how exactly am I gonna beat it out of him before the challenge? I can't exactly sneak out of here without any trouble." Ranma answered in a hushed tone as he pointed out the only shortfall the plan had.

"Trick him into coming here." Shampoo suggested nonchalantly "It can't be hard to get him here with all that food out in the grounds during lunch."

"That'll work, but we are going to have to use some of the lunch you made as bait." Ranma pointed out.

"Then we are agreed." Shampoo whispered in response.

None of the other students paid any attention to this whole exchange. They were by now used to the fact that the two martial artists were almost always whispering to each other about something and had learned how to tune it out if it didn't concern them. Ukyo had no idea that Ranma and Shampoo were even talking to each other because of their whispers being just low enough to not carry over to where she was seated on the other side of the room.

The two martial artists were satisfied with their plan and turned their attention back to the lesson just in time for the writing portion of their lessons. Most of the class groaned every time they got to this point of the day, because they just wanted to enjoy their lunch break that was set to begin shortly. Shampoo was one of the exceptions to this due to her desire to fix her broken Japanese language skills. The results where only just beginning to pay off and she was making fewer mistakes as a result, though if she were to be honest with herself it would be a long time before she could completely break her bad habits when speaking Japanese.

The studious Amazon took a short look at the newest student while the rest of the class was working on copying the last of the notes from the board. The long black hair of the new student was tied back into a pony tail and it looked as if the boy uniform didn't fit exceptionally well, however the amazon reasoned that that may be due to the giant spatula attached on the student's back. Shampoo could also observe the faintest hint of breasts that were tightly bound. It was hard to pick out, but Shampoo's experience back home in the village where often times some of the girls would wrap their chests in order to play a game where the girls tried to blend in with the boys. It was a game to try and pick out the girls from the boys, but after a few years she realized the game was actually there to teach the girls a way to disappear if a mission called for that kind of infiltration. She had no idea how the guys did their training for that, because it was done in secret and truth be told she didn't want to know.

'_This new student is a girl, but why is she trying so hard to look like a boy?'_ Shampoo wondered as she started piecing her observations of the new student together.

Before she could continue her thoughts, the bell rang and caused all the students to scramble out the door of the classroom to eat their lunches outside on the school grounds. Shampoo grabbed Ranma and the two of them made their way for the giant tree in the back of the yard. Once they arrived, the martial artists began to eat Shampoo's homemade ramen and pork buns, leaving some out in the open a good 5 meters away for the enticing trap they wanted to set for Genma. After that, they jumped up into the tree and Shampoo watched as Ranma ate his lunch much slower than what she had ever seen him eat, which meant that it took Ranma a full thirty seconds to eat his meal rather than the usual five seconds. The reason was because he had become preoccupied with looking for Genma so he could finally have a full explanation to his current predicament rather than just the speculation he and Shampoo had put together to try and explain it, as well as being ready to grab the Panda as soon as he showed his face.

Luck was on Ranma's side as the Panda had chosen the exact moment Ranma had looked up after his meal to make an appearance during an attempt to steal some of the 'unattended' food. The Amazon waited until Genma was in striking range and pounced. She made no noise on the way down and Genma didn't even sense an attack until he was lying on the ground in a daze from a chui strike to the back of his head. This gave Ranma plenty of time to jump down and casually walk over to the confused man and begin his interrogation.

"Pops you've got some explaining to do." Ranma growled.

"About what?!" Genma signed still slightly feeling the effects of Shampoo's ambush.

"About how we left the Kuonji's." Ranma replied, his impatience evident in his tone as Shampoo dumped hot water from her thermos on the Panda's head.

"Nothing happened. Where are you getting these delusions Ranma my boy?" Genma immediately countered as soon as his transformation was complete in an attempt to deflect the question with his lie.

"Oh I don't know. Maybe it's cause Uchan is here and doesn't seem to think that nothing happened." Ranma retorted, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Well now that you mention it our exit was a bit sudden and we never really had a proper goodbye, but I swear that nothing else happened." Genma replied realizing that his first attempt didn't work, so he decided that a half-truth would work better than his original idea.

"Now why don't I believe that?" Ranma asked his patience for Genma's game wearing thin. He was spared having to deal with it any more when Ukyo suddenly joined in.

"Well if it isn't Genma Saotome, time for you to finally get what you deserve you jackass." Ukyo yelled as she wielded her spatula and readied it for a blow.

"Ukyo you've got to understand I had enough trouble feeding the child I already had." Genma pleaded while Ranma and Shampoo looked at each other with smug satisfaction on their faces for finally getting the truth from the old man.

Ukyo however wasn't even listening to his excuse and proceeded to pummel the old man into the ground. She didn't stop until he was nothing more than a head poking out of the ground.

"So pops care to try again? Why did you steal the Kuonji Family Okonomiaki cart?" Ranma asked once he was sure Genma was conscious enough to hear him.

"It wasn't stolen! It was a gift for taking Ukyo off his hands." Genma answered evenly seeing no way to get out of this situation except to tell the truth now that Ukyo had joined in his interrogation.

"Only you forgot to take me with you jackass." Ukyo snorted derisively.

"What a minute! Why was it a gift? And while you're at it, explain the off his hands part." Ranma said totally confused as to what was going on.

"You mean you don't know? Oh this is just fantastic." Ukyo said in disbelief.

"Ranma I'd like you to meet Ukyo, your betrothed." Genma stated flatly sensing an opportunity to take the attention away from himself.

"What are you talking about? Aren't you a guy Uchan?" Ranma asked even more confused than he was a minute ago.

Shampoo couldn't remain quiet any longer and jokingly commented "Ranma not very observant. Uchan is girl."

"Say what?" Ranma responded completely dumbfounded by this point.

"She's right Ranchan, you aren't very observant are you?" Ukyo added still disbelieving what she was witnessing.

"So pops got us engaged?" Ranma asked rhetorically trying to understand what had just blindsided him and essentially turned his whole childhood memories upside down. His answer came in the form of a nodding Ukyo.

The wheels finally clicked for Ranma and he began to slowly understand. He turned on his father still trapped as a head poking out of the ground and pulled what little hair he had on his head to get his attention and asked furiously, "How many engagements did you give me huh? Are there any others I should know about?"

"Engagements! You mean this scum has been two timing my family this whole time and breaking his honor by engaging you to another woman?!" Ukyo shouted furiously as she readied another round of barrages on Genma's head.

"Yeah from what I understand pops here engaged me to Akane before I was even born and then pulled a fast one on your folks. Now correct me if I'm wrong here pops." Ranma stated slightly frightened of Ukyo's anger.

"You forgot about the fact that it's a matter of family honor that you marry the daughter of my dear friend Tendo." Genma stated smugly completely missing the point that he had intentionally screwed over the Kuonji Family all those years ago.

"Shampoo no think he even knows what honor is." Shampoo spat venomously as she too felt anger rising over what Genma had done.

"Yeah, how in the world is it honorable to engage someone, take off with the family business as a dowry and not even have the decency to remember let alone honor the arrangement." Ukyo said in between blows with her spatula to the top of Genma's already bruised head in an effort to alleviate her pent up aggression.

"Pops if anything this makes all your talk about honor worthless because you don't seem to even have a shred honor." Ranma said flatly.

"Don't you dare talk to me like that boy…"

"Or what? You won't do anything 'cause I'll beat the crap outta you and your afraid that I might ruin those oh so precious plans of yours to grow old and fat with Mr. Tendo till the two of you die from old age." Ranma interrupted his father angrily.

Genma could only stare with anger and grumble under his breath at the indignation because of his current predicament. Both girls had had enough after a few seconds and both utilized their blunt weapons to effectively knock the old man out for good this time.

Satisfied with their handiwork the two girls sheathed their weapons. Ukyo's spatula returned to its sling on her back, while Shampoo managed to hide her chui into some secret part of her clothing. An awkward silence followed these actions that lasted until Ranma finally managed to work up the courage to say something.

"So ah Uchan I know that what my pops did was wrong and even though I only just found out I hope we can go back to being friends." Ranma said rather awkwardly.

"Sure thing Sugar, besides it's your jackass of a father's fault in the first place, so I can't really hold any of that against you." Ukyo said smiling for the first time since she had arrived in Nermia.

"Thanks Uchan" Ranma said happily "it's nice to have my childhood friend back."

"So who's your friend Ranma? You forgot to introduce us." Ukyo asked changing the topic.

"Oh yeah I forgot all about that sorry. Uchan I'd like you to meet Shampoo." Ranma said.

"Nice to meet you" both girls said in unison.

"RANMA!" came a scream from the other end of the yard as a cloud of seething anger stomped towards them.

"And who's the angry one headed our way?" asked Ukyo.

"That would be the other fiancé he talked about the, uncute one, Akane." Ranma said rather bored of what he was sure was going to devolve into another shouting match where Akane would refuse to see reason.

"Ranma you were supposed to eat the lunch I cooked for you." Akane yelled upset that her hard work was not going to be appreciated again.

"And I would have if it wasn't poisonous." Ranma replied casually.

"It is not!" Akane retorted anger returning to her voice.

"I take one bite and I have to throw up just so I won't be killed by whatever you put in it." Ranma replied nonchalantly, completely missing the looks he was receiving from the girls. Ukyo's was one of confusion, Shampoo had pity for the poor guy, and Akane was turning beat red with unbridled fury to complement the snarl etched on her face.

The expected fight between the quarreling fiancés never came because the school bell rang at that moment signaling the need to return to class. This put to the problem because Akane just decided to not continue the argument any further and proceeded to head back towards the classroom.

Ranma was happy to not be arguing any longer and decided to catch up on the life of his childhood friend since he had last seen her all those years ago. Ukyo was only happy to oblige as it gave her a chance to rekindle their friendship that she had admittedly missed having during that span.

Meanwhile Shampoo was forgotten by the pair of reacquainted friends leaving her to her own thoughts as she trailed behind them. Her thoughts forced her to focus and scrutinize her newest rival, though she wouldn't admit that was how she actually saw the new girl. The whole exchange had made the Chinese Amazon jealous of the attention Ranma was paying Ukyo.

"It's so greet to see ya again Uchan. I'd forgotten how much fun we had together as kids." Ranma said cheerfully.

Shampoo then felt as if she had just been stabbed in the heart.


	12. A Day by the Lake

Authors note: Thank you to all who are still reading this story after the long hiatus. Had things I needed to take care of. I hope you enjoy.

Remember _mandarin._

'thoughts'

* * *

Chapter 12 A Day By The Lake

A few days later, Shampoo woke up early not having really gotten any restful sleep. The friendly camaraderie that Ranma and Ukyo had so quickly developed was tormenting her mind whenever she wasn't busy. This latest round of torment had begun shortly after the Cat-café had closed yesterday evening, and had continued throughout the night. The torment did not go unnoticed by the matriarch, who immediately recognized what was plaguing her great granddaughter, so it was no surprise that Shampoo found her elder calmly sitting at a table sipping on some herbal tea when she came into the kitchen to make a sleep potion.

As soon as she came into view, Shampoo was motioned to join the elder at the table. Puzzled as to the reason her great-grandmother would be up so early in the morning on a day they weren't training on a new technique, Shampoo wordlessly sat down and waited for her Great-grandmother to speak. The purple haired girl did her best to maintain her composure in this situation, but it wasn't nearly as successful as she would have liked because the matriarch was able to sense the uneasiness growing inside of Shampoo as they sat there.

"Shampoo what's troubling you to wake up at this time on your day off? You do realize that the sun won't rise for at least another three hours?" Cologne joked trying to make Shampoo comfortable enough to feel like opening up to her.

"Shampoo no know what Great-grandmother talking about." Shampoo lied.

"_Then why have you not said ten words to me since you returned from school yesterday." _Cologne said switching to mandarin in the hope that Shampoo would drop the charade and confess what the matter was. "_It's obvious there is something bothering you, but if you don't talk to me there is no way I can help you."_

Shampoo took a deep breath and began her confession "_Well one of Ranma's old childhood friends showed up this week and it turns out they're engaged to each other due to that stupid panda of a father whoring out Ranma's hand for just a quick bite to eat. Any the point is they've been getting along really well and my mind just keeps reliving scenes of them enjoying each other's company. To make it worse, every time I even try to close my eyes I'm greeted by the sight of them together and I start to feel things that I've never experienced before in my entire life."_

Cologne chuckled to herself understanding her Great-granddaughter's problem perfectly. She took a deep breath and calmly explained, "_My dear what you are experiencing is called jealousy. It is something that tends to happen when someone you love shows affection or even attention in some cases, for another. In your case, seeing Ranma and this girl being so friendly with each other has made you envious of that attention she is receiving."_

_"Then what am I supposed to do to stop feeling this way." _Shampoo asked hoping that there was some wisdom that the elder was willing to give her.

"_That should be obvious my dear great-granddaughter, you make the first move for Ranma. Go make him your boyfriend instead of sitting around hoping he'll fall into your lap."_ Cologne said as a matter of fact.

"_Yes great-grandmother._" Shampoo responded in a hushed tone and fully aware of what her elder was trying to tell her. Shampoo suddenly remembered the deal she had struck with Ranma back during the phoenix pill showdown that was just a few weeks back. '_Now is as good a time as any to go collect his end of our deal_' Shampoo thought. '_And if I play this right I may get more than just a dinner with Ranma.'_ Shampoo's face was then overtaken with a look of extreme joy as she had these thoughts.

"Aiyah thank you for advice, Shampoo know just what to do now" the happiness clearly evident on her face as she raced outside to catch Ranma before he left the dojo to escape for a day of fun.

At the halfway mark to the Tendo Dojo from the Cat-café, Shampoo could hear a loud crashing sound coming from the direction she was heading in followed by a red spot flying quickly through the air. Knowing all too well that Ranma had probably insulted Akane again, the purple haired Amazon changed course and followed the flying spot.

Sure enough the spot turned out to be Ranma, who had the misfortune of landing in the middle of the lake, and Ranma was not happy about it. She wasn't able to sulk about her curse though because she had landed in the middle of the annual Nermia summer finale boat race. The red head was then forced to use all of her strength and speed just to avoid the numerous amounts of boats speeding past her at various positions. Her inability to make any progress towards the shore was fast becoming a major concern as her stamina was beginning to wane as she was constantly kept dodging oncoming boats. She was saved by the appearance of a rope hanging off of the pedestrian bridge connecting the park to downtown Nermia.

Ranma quickly scrambled up the rope like her life depended on it, and once safely on the bridge she collapsed in exhaustion. Once she had caught her breath a little she weakly managed to say "Thanks" to her unknown rescuer. What she got in return was a complete surprise.

"What Ranma do this time to piss off Akane?" asked an amused Shampoo trying to hold back her laughter at the sight of Ranma's facial expression.

"Ssssshampo what are you doing here?" Ranma stammered in complete shock and embarrassment at having been caught in this predicament by her close friend.

"Looking for you silly Ranma, now answer Shampoo's question." The amazon replied giddily.

"Um well you see I insulted her cooking abilities apparently by trying to tell her that she would never be able to cook anything edible." Ranma recalled slightly miffed at what the tomboy had done in response to her critique.

"Aiyah Ranma no wonder you smashed so hard." Shampoo said evenly.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Ranma retorted.

"Well for starters as far as Shampoo understand that kind of insult is the worst possible for Japanese girl." Shampoo told Ranma.

"I didn't say nothing that ain't true." Ranma snorted.

"That's not the point… oh forget it Shampoo no want to talk any more about Akane." Shampoo replied exasperatedly and with a tone of frustration at not getting what she was after.

"Fine works for me." Ranma said flatly. "What did you want to talk about?" Her tone shifting to one of curiosity rather than annoyance.

It was now Shampoo's turn to be embarrassed as she struggled for a few seconds to figure out how best to word her request. She couldn't think up a good way to do it, so she ended up just saying "Ranma remember our deal from when I managed to get the phoenix pill for you?"

"Um not really, I just remember being really happy to finally have my cure for that old hag's torture." Ranma answered truthfully.

'Well that figures' Shampoo thought slightly put off that Ranma didn't even remember.

Quickly taking a moment to regain her composure, the Amazon took a deep breath and said "You agreed to take Shampoo to dinner and Shampoo is here to collect."

Ranma was stunned as she tried to recollect the memory, and after a minute of scouring her brain she found the memory and realized that she had unknowingly agreed to the deal that Shampoo had just mentioned. Ranma was then engaged in an internal struggle to figure out what to do. Part of her was saying that she should just go for it 'cause it sounded like a lot of fun, while the other part of her mind was listing all the reasons it would end horribly for her. Eventually a third voice in her head pitched in to the debate, 'even if it does go horribly wrong you guys will still be friends so man up and go for it.'

Shampoo meanwhile was becoming worried about what Ranma could possibly be thinking. The red-head's silence had lasted for what felt like an eternity allowing for feelings of doubt to creep into the purple-haired Amazon's mind. 'Oh no Ranma's trying to come up with a way to reject me, this whole thing is about to blow up in my face. What can I do? Should I run for it and pretend nothing happened?' This pattern of worry filled thoughts continued and she almost missed hearing Ranma speak her decision.

"Shampoo is there any place in particular you'd like to go?" Ranma asked nervously.

Shampoo was taken aback for a second as it slowly dawned on her that Ranma had in fact accepted the dinner date. She then became overjoyed and squealed in delight "Shampoo no really care so long as we have fun."

"Well ok then what if we just wander around the festival here till we find something we like since we're already here." Ranma said hoping to find a place to lay low while things at the dojo settled down to a point where he wouldn't be immediately sent flying off into the sunset when he returned.

"Shampoo ok with that." She said calmly, but on the inside she was ecstatic and fighting the urge to jump up and down and shout her happiness to the heavens.

The two martial artists proceeded to wander around the festival looking for anything that might appeal to them. Most of the festivities were set aside for families with young children making it hard for them to find anything appealing. They almost gave up of finding anything when a flier caught Shampoo's attention. It read 'Beach Volleyball Tournament. Teams of two girls only. Grand Prize all you can eat dinner at Uchan's Okonomiaki Grand opening celebration.'

"Ranma this sound interesting" Shampoo said as she pointed towards the flyer causing the red-head to focus on the flyer as well.

"All you can eat dinner huh. Sounds like my kinda prize" Ranma replied gleefully thinking about all of that food and overlooking the entry rules.

"Ranma do know you do have to play as girl-type in order to compete" Shampoo pointed out.

"Eh that'll be fine, all I really care about is that prize, besides this will finally allow my curse to be useful for something rather than being a pain in my you know what." Ranma stated simply.

"Ok let's go find registration table then." Shampoo said as she grabbed Ranma and took off running towards the arena that the organizers had set up beside the lake.

When the two martial artists arrived at the registration table they found it being operated by a man more interested in the beauties in front of him than making sure that contestants filled out the paperwork properly. He was so mesmerized by these two girls in front of him that he was reduced to a babbling idiot that was only capable of handing them the papers needed for entry and pointing them in the direction of the locker rooms. Once the girls had left his field of vision, he promptly passed out with the biggest nosebleed of his life.

Shampoo giggled at the scene they had just witnessed and was in the process of dragging Ranma into the girl's locker-room to make sure that the red-head didn't go into the guy's room by mistake. Ranma was about to protest to being dragged into the girl's room when Shampoo silenced any argument before one could be thought of by giving a slight squeeze of the red-head's breasts. She continued this until they were inside the room.

"Um Shampoo could you stop doing that." Ranma whispered into the amazon's ear and her cheeks flushing red with embarrassment.

Shampoo then took a look at where her hands were and quickly removed them. "Sorry Airen, but had to be sure you no go into other room like this." She whispered back while giving him a quick kiss on the cheek.

Shampoo then reached inside the secret pocket of her clothes and pulled out two pairs of swimsuits for them to wear for the competition. One was a red one-piece suit with gold trim similar to Ranma's usual garb, while the other was a blue string bikini. Shampoo tossed the red suit to Ranma who was still dazed by Shampoo's kiss that she didn't notice the fabric until it was covering her face.

This brought her to her senses and forced the red-head to remember the reason for being in this room in the first place. She casually walked over to a separate area of the changing area in an attempt to find some privacy. Once found the red-head timidly changed into the suit trying keep from sneaking a glance at the well-endowed figure that was the Amazon warrior separated by just a wall of lockers. She took one glance around the corner once she had finished changing to see if her purple-haired companion had finished as well.

Sure enough Shampoo had finished changing and did not fail to notice Ranma's glance in her direction. She gave the red head a smile and asked "Ready to go win?"

Ranma took a deep gulp to try and calm her pounding heart and replied "Sure".

They stepped out on the arena and heard the crowd roaring impatiently waiting for the tournament to begin.

"Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the annual Nermia Summer Finale Festival. Today we have a special event sponsored by Nermia's newest restaurant Uchan's Okonomiaki, A martial art beach volleyball tournament. The rules are the same as regular beach volleyball but contestants are allowed any martial arts technique to hit the ball. Now that that's taken care of let's begin our first match between our contestants competing for that shot at an all you can eat buffet to our generous sponsor's grand opening. For our first match we have the world's fifteenth ranked beach volleyball pair, hailing from the Hawaiian Islands give it up for Lelo and her sister Nani." The announcer said through the arena's sound system and paused for the packed crowd that was now in a massive frenzy trying to get a good look at the Hawaiian team that had come dressed in their traditional grass skirts.

He waited for a few seconds for the cheers to die down to the point where the speakers would be audible again and started again with the introduction. "And their opponents will be two local girls that attend Furinkan High right here in Nermia, give it up for Ranma Saotome and her partner Shampoo."

The cheers of the crowd intensified as they recognized the names of the girls that had won the much publicized martial arts gymnastics bout with the infamous Black Rose. Ranma meanwhile was taking it all in and hearing the cheering was feeding her ego well beyond what might be considered healthy.

At the same time, the tournament sponsor was sitting up in the luxury box reserved for festival sponsors and her ears perked up upon hearing the name Ranma Saotome. She performed a double take to make sure she had heard that name right. 'I swear I just heard Ranchan's name used for a girl but that's impossible isn't it? If that had been right then I'm going to have to have a chat with that red-head and find out what connection she has with my Ranchan.' Ukyo thought as she watched the spectacle play out before her.

The match was already well underway and the martial artists had found themselves down 4-0 to the quick working Hawaiians, who were catching them out of position to field the balls cleanly for a good return. Eventually their chance came when Ranma managed to get a clean hit on the ball, knocking it up into the air for Shampoo who jumped up and smashed the ball straight at the younger sister, knocking her into the sand with concussive force.

"4-1 advantage Hawaiians. Now switch serves." Said the referee as the medics were busy checking the young girl to make sure she was well enough to continue the match. Once deemed fine, the match was allowed to resume with Ranma as the server. She gave Shampoo a wink as she held the ball in one hand and with the other used the amigurikan technique to create a spinning effect on the volleyball.

Once satisfied with the amount of spin she had created she tossed the ball into the air and hit it into the opponent's side of the net. The ball sailed into the air towards the younger girl then curved right in between the two where neither had a chance to make a play on the ball. Ranma repeated the process, but put the ball into a different spot with the same result of no return. The third serve was the same. On the fourth, they managed to return the serve but Shampoo was ready for it and blocked the ball giving the Nermia girls their first lead of the match. It was a lead they never relinquished as the cruised on to victory.


End file.
